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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/7300-8.txt b/7300-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8bd0f92 --- /dev/null +++ b/7300-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7524 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Woman and the Republic, by Helen Kendrick Johnson + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Woman and the Republic + A Survey of the Woman-Suffrage Movement in the United States and + a Discussion of the Claims and Arguments of Its Foremost Advocates + +Author: Helen Kendrick Johnson + +Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7300] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on April 9, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-Latin-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMAN AND THE REPUBLIC *** + + + + +Produced by Olaf Voss, Tiffany Vergon, Charles Aldarondo, +Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + +WOMAN AND THE REPUBLIC + +A SURVEY OF THE WOMAN-SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES AND A +DISCUSSION OF THE CLAIMS AND ARGUMENTS OF ITS FOREMOST ADVOCATES BY + +HELEN KENDRICK JOHNSON + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY +CHAPTER II. IS WOMAN SUFFRAGE DEMOCRATIC? +CHAPTER III. WOMAN SUFFRAGE AND THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC +CHAPTER IV. WOMAN SUFFRAGE AND PHILANTHROPY +CHAPTER V. WOMAN SUFFRAGE AND THE LAWS +CHAPTER VI. WOMAN SUFFRAGE AND THE TRADES +CHAPTER VII. WOMAN SUFFRAGE AND THE PROFESSIONS +CHAPTER VIII. WOMAN SUFFRAGE AND EDUCATION +CHAPTER IX. WOMAN SUFFRAGE AND THE CHURCH +CHAPTER X. WOMAN SUFFRAGE AND SEX +CHAPTER XI. WOMAN SUFFRAGE AND THE HOME +CHAPTER XII. CONCLUSION + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +INTRODUCTORY. + + +The introduction to the "History of Woman Suffrage," published in 1881-85, +edited by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and Matilda Joslyn +Gage, contains the following statement: "It is often asserted that, as +woman has always been man's slave, subject, inferior, dependent, under all +forms of government and religion, slavery must be her normal condition; +but that her condition is abnormal is proved by the marvellous change in +her character, from a toy in the Turkish harem, or a drudge in the German +fields, to a leader of thought in the literary circles of France, England, +and America." + +I have made this quotation partly on account of its direct application to +the subject to be discussed, and partly to illustrate the contradictions +that seem to inhere in the arguments on which the claim to Woman Suffrage +is founded. If woman has become a leader of thought in the literary +circles of the most cultivated lands, she has not always been man's slave, +subject, inferior, dependent, under all forms of government and religion; +and, furthermore, it is not true that there has been such a marvellous +change in her character as is implied in this statement. Where man is a +bigot and a barbarian, there, alas! woman is still a harem toy; where man +is little more than a human clod, woman is to-day a drudge in the field; +where man has hewn the way to governmental and religious freedom, there +woman has become a leader of thought. The unity of race progress is +strikingly suggested by this fact. The method through which that unity is +maintained should unfold itself as we study the story of the sex +advancement of our time. + +Progress is a magic word, and the Suffrage party has been fortunate in its +attempt to invoke the sorcery of the thought that it enfolds, and to blend +it with the claim of woman to share in the public duty of voting. +Possession of the elective franchise is a symbol of power in man's hand; +why should it not bear the same relation to woman's upward impulse and +action? Modern adherents ask, "Is not the next new force at hand in our +social evolution to come from the entrance of woman upon the political +arena?" The roots of these questions, and consequently of their answers, +lie as deep as the roots of being, and they cannot be laid bare by +superficial digging. But the laying bare of roots is not the only way, or +even the best way, to judge of the strength and beauty of a growth. We +look at the leaves, the flowers, and the fruit. "Movement" and "Progress" +are not synonymous terms. In evolution there is degeneration as well as +regeneration. Only the work that has been in accord with the highest +ideals of woman's nature is fitted to the environment of its advance, and +thus to survival and development. In order to learn whether Woman Suffrage +is in the line of advance, we must know whether the movement to obtain it +has thus far blended itself with those that have proved to be for woman's +progress and for the progress of government. + +I am sure I need not emphasize the fact that, in studying some of the +principles that underlie the Suffrage movement, I am not impugning the +motives of the leaders. Nor need I dwell upon the fact that it is from the +good comradeship of men and women that has come to prevail under our free +conditions, that some women have hastily espoused a cause with which they +never have affiliated, because they supposed it to be fighting against +odds for the freedom of their sex. + +The past fifty years have wrought more change in the conditions of life +than could many a Cathayan cycle. The growth of religious liberty, +enlargement of foreign and home missions, the Temperance movement, the +giant war waged for principle, are among the causes of this change. The +settlement of the great West, the opening of professions and trades to +woman consequent upon the loss of more than a half million of the nation's +most stalwart men, the mechanical inventions that have changed home and +trade conditions, the sudden advance of science, the expansion of mind and +of work that are fostered by the play of a free government,--all these +have tended to place man and woman, but especially woman, where something +like a new heaven and a new earth are in the distant vision. + +To this change the Suffragists call attention, and say, "This is, in great +part, our work." In this little book I shall recount a few of the facts +that, in my opinion, go to prove that the Suffrage movement has had but +little part or lot in this matter. And because of these facts I believe +the principles on which the claim to suffrage is founded are those that +turn individuals and nations backward and not forward. + +The first proof I shall mention is the latest one in time--it is the fact +of an Anti-Suffrage movement. In the political field alone are we being +formed into separate camps whose watchwords become more unlike as they +become more clearly understood. The fact that for the first time in our +history representatives of two great organizations of women are appealing +to courts and legislatures, each begging them to refuse the prayer of the +other, shows, as conclusively as a long argument could do, that this +matter of suffrage is something essentially distinct from the great series +of movements in which women thus far have advanced side by side. It is an +instinctive announcement of a belief that the demand for suffrage is not +progress; that it does array sex against sex; that woman, like man, can +advance only as the race advances; and that here lies the dividing line. + +How absolute is that dividing line between woman's progress and woman +suffrage, we may realize when we consider what the result would be if we +could know to-morrow, beyond a peradventure, that woman never would vote +in the United States. Not one of her charities, great or small, would be +crippled. Not a woman's college would close its doors. Not a profession +would withhold its diploma from her; not a trade its recompense. Not a +single just law would be repealed, or a bad one framed, as a consequence. +Not a good book would be forfeited. Not a family would be less secure of +domestic happiness. Not a single hope would die which points to a time +when our cities will all be like those of the prophet's vision, "first +pure and then peaceable." + +Among the forces that are universally considered progressive are: the +democratic idea in government, extinction of slavery, increase of +educational and industrial opportunities for woman, improvement in the +statute laws, and spread of religious freedom. The Woman-Suffrage movement +professed to champion these causes. That movement is now nearly fifty +years old, and has made a record by which its relation to them can be +judged. What is the verdict? + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +IS WOMAN SUFFRAGE DEMOCRATIC? + + +As the claim of woman to share the voting power is related to the +fundamental principles of government, the progress of government must be +studied in relation to that claim in order to learn its bearing upon them. +It is possible to suggest in one brief chapter only the barest outline of +such a far-reaching scrutiny, and wiser heads than mine must search to +conclusion; but some beginnings looking toward an answer to the inquiry I +have raised have occurred to me as not having entered into the newly- +opened controversy on woman suffrage. + +I say, the newly-opened controversy, for, through these fifty years, the +Suffragists have done nearly all the talking. So persistently have they +laid claim to being in the line of progress for woman, that many of their +newly aroused opponents fancied that the anti-suffrage view might be the +ultra conservative one, and that democratic principles, strictly and +broadly applied, might at last lead to woman suffrage, though premature if +pushed to a conclusion now. + +The first step in finding out how far that position is true is, to +ascertain what the Suffragists say about this noblest of democracies, our +own Government. In referring to the "The History of Woman Suffrage" for +the opinions of the leaders, I am not only using a book that on its +publication was considered a strong and full presentment of their +arguments, but one which they are today advertising and selling as "a +perfect arsenal of the work done by and for women during the last half +century." In it the editors say: "Woman's political equality with man is +the legitimate outgrowth of the fundamental principles of our government." +Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi, writing in the New York Sun in April, 1894, says: +"Never, until the establishment of universal [male] suffrage, did it +happen that all the women in a community, no matter how well born, how +intelligent, how well educated, how virtuous, how wealthy, were counted +the political inferiors of all the men, no matter how base born, how +stupid, how ignorant, how brutal, how poverty-stricken. This anomaly is +the real innovation. Men have personally ruled the women of their +families; the law has annihilated the separate existence of women; but +women have never been subjected to the political sovereignty of all men +simply in virtue of their sex. Never, that is, since the days of the +ancient republics." Mrs. Ellen Battelle Dietrick, who, as Secretary of the +New-England Suffrage Association, was put forward to meet all comers, +writing in July, 1895, said: "Shall we, as a people, be true to our +principles and enfranchise woman? or, shall we drift along in the meanest +form of oligarchy known among men--an oligarchy which exalts every sort of +a male into a ruler simply because he is a male, and debases every woman +into a subject simply because she is a woman?" Mrs. Fanny B. Ames, +speaking in Boston in 1896, said: "I believe woman suffrage to be the +final result of the evolution of a true democracy." Not only has every +woman speaker or writer in favor of suffrage presented this idea in some +form, but the men also who have taken that side have done likewise. One +among those who advocated the cause before the Committee in the +Constitutional Convention of New York, said: "Woman Suffrage is the +inevitable result of the logic of the situation of modern society. The +despot who first yielded an inch of power gave up the field. We are +standing in the light of the best interests of the State of New York when +we stand in the way of this forward movement." + +All these writers charge the American Republic with being false to +democratic principles in excluding women from the franchise, while but one +of them alludes to the fact that in the ancient republics the same +"anomaly" was seen. + +As I read political history, the facts go to show that the fundamental +principles of our Government are more opposed to the exercise of suffrage +by women than are those of monarchies. To me it seems that both despotism +and anarchy are more friendly to woman's political aspirations than is any +form of constitutional government, and that manhood suffrage, and not +womanhood suffrage, is the final result of the evolution of democracy. + +The Suffragists repeatedly call attention to the fact that in the early +ages in Egypt, in Greece, and in Rome, women were of much greater +political consequence than later during the republics; but the moral they +have drawn has been that of the superiority of the ancient times. Mrs. +Dietrick says: "The ideal woman of Greece was Athena, patroness of all +household arts and industries, but equally patroness of all political +interests. The greatest city of Greece was believed to have been founded +by her, and Greek history recorded that, though the men citizens voted +solidly to have the city named for Neptune, yet the women citizens voted +solidly for Athena, beat them by one vote, and carried that political +matter. If physical force had been a governing power in Greece, and men +its manifestation, how could such a story have been published by Greek men +down to the second century before our era?" + +Mrs. Dietrick's remarkably realistic version of the old myth does not tell +the tale as Greek men published it. Varro, who was educated at Athens, +goes on to say: "Thereupon, Neptune became enraged, and immediately the +sea flowed over all the land of Athens. To appease the god, the burgesses +were compelled to impose a threefold punishment upon their wives--they +were to lose their votes; the children were to receive no more the +mother's name; and they themselves were no longer to be called Athenians, +after the goddess." It seems to me this fable teaches that physical force +was indeed the governing power in Athens at that day, and that men were +its manifestation. + +The legend is generally taken to indicate the time when the Greek gens +progressed to the family. In the ruder time, the legitimacy of the +chieftain might be traced, because the mother, though not always the +father, could be known with certainty. When the father became the +acknowledged head of the household, a distinct advance was made toward +that heroic age in which the vague but towering figures of men and women +move across the stage. Goddesses, queens, princesses, are powerful in love +and war. Sibyls unfold the meaning of the book of fate. Vestals feed the +fires upon the highest and lowest altars. Later, throughout most of the +states of Greece, something like the following order of political life is +seen: from kings to oligarchs, from oligarchs to tyrants or despots, from +them to some form of restricted constitutional liberty. In Sparta, all +change of government was controlled by the machinery of war, and the +soldiers were made forever free. Athens, separated from the rest of +Greece, was less agitated by outward conflict. In government she passed +from king to archon; from hereditary archon to archons chosen for ten +years, but always from one family, then to those elected for one year, +nine being chosen. At the time of the Areopagus there were four classes of +citizens. The first three paid taxes, had a right to share in the +government, and formed the defence of the state. If women were of +political importance in earlier times, and if a republic is more favorable +to the exercise by them of the elective franchise, we should expect to +find women reaching their highest power under the Areopagus. Exactly the +contrary appears to be true. Native and honorable Greek women retired to +domestic life as the liberty of their people grew. Grote, in his "History +of Greece," referring to the legendary period, says: "We find the wife +occupying a station of great dignity and influence, though it was the +practice of the husband to purchase her by valuable presents to her +parents. She even seems to live less secluded, and to enjoy a wider sphere +of action, than was allotted to her in historic Greece." + +Lecky, in his "European Morals," says: "It is one of the most remarkable +and, to some writers, one of the most perplexing facts in the moral +history of Greece, that in the former and ruder period women had +undoubtedly the highest place, and their type exhibited the highest +perfection." What the "highest perfection" is, for her type, or for man's +type, is not here under discussion; but it is not out of place to say in +passing that if the final conquest of the spiritual over the material +forces of humanity is really the aim of civilization, these "facts in the +moral history of Greece" become less "perplexing." + +The heroines of Homer's tales were all of noble birth--they were +goddesses, princesses, hereditary gentlewomen. In early historic times, +also, it was only royal or gentle blood that secured for woman political +power. Athena was, in gentle Athens, patroness of household arts; but in +Sparta, as Minerva, the same divinity was goddess, not of political +interests, as Mrs. Dietrick puts it, but of war. She sprang full-armed +from the head of Jove--rather a masculine origin, it must be owned. In +Sparta women became soldiers as the democratic idea advanced. Princess +Archidamia, marching at the head of her female troop to rebuke the +senators for the decree that the women and children be removed from the +city before the anticipated attack could come, is an example. In Etolia, +in Argos, and in other states, the same was true. Maria and Telesilla led +the women in battle and disciplined them in peace. But the world does not +turn to Sparta for its ideal of a pre-Christian republic, and the +Suffragists of our day do not propose to emulate the Spartan Amazon and +hew their way to political power with the sword. + +In Athens, which does present the model, matters were far otherwise. In +the year 700 B. C., the Spartans called upon Athens for a commander to +lead them to the second Messenian war, and the Athenians sent them +Tyrtaeus, their martial poet. The Spartans were displeased at his youth +and gentle bearing; but when the battle was joined, his chanting of his +own war-songs so animated the troops that they won against heavy odds. The +following is a fragment translated from one of his lyrics: + + "But be it ours to guard the hallowed spot, + To shield the tender offspring and the wife; + Here steadily await our destined lot, + And, for their sakes, resign the gift of life." + +Aeschylus, poet and soldier, writing a hundred and fifty years later, in +his "Seven Against Thebes," puts into the mouth of the chieftain Eteocles +this address to the women: + + "It is not to be borne, ye wayward race; + Is this your best, is this the aid you lend + The state, the fortitude with which you steel + The souls of the besieged, thus falling down + Before the images to wail, and shriek + With lamentations loud? Wisdom abhors you. + Nor in misfortune, nor in dear success, + Be woman my associate. If her power + Bears sway, her insolence exceeds all bounds; + But if she fears, woe to that house and city. + And now by holding counsel with weak fear, + You magnify the foe, and turn our men + To flight. Thus are we ruined by ourselves. + This ever will arise from suffering women + To intermix with men. But mark me well, + Whoe'er henceforth dares disobey my orders-- + Be it man or woman, old or young-- + Vengeance shall burst upon him, the decree + Stands irreversible, and he shall die. + War is no female province, but the scene + For men. Hence, home! nor spread your mischiefs here. + Hear you, or not? Or speak I to the deaf?" + +Pericles, in his famous funeral oration over those who fell in the +Peloponnesian war, thus addresses the Athenian women: "To the wives who +will henceforth live in widowhood, I will speak, in one short sentence +only, of womanly virtue. She is the best woman who is most truly a woman, +and her reputation is the highest whose name is never in the mouths of men +for good or for evil." + +Seclusion was the best thing that the most intellectual pre-Christian +republic could give to its honorable women. The freedom with which the +hetairse, who were foreigners or daughters of slaves, mingled with +statesmen and philosophers, brought them open political influence, but not +a hint of voting power or of office-holding. + +For the sake of brevity, I will confine my reference to Roman custom to a +single pregnant sentence from Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Empire." +He says: "In every age and country the wiser, or at least the stronger of +the two sexes, has usurped the powers of the state, and confined the other +to the cares and pleasures of domestic life. In hereditary monarchies, +however, and especially in those of modern Europe, the gallant spirit of +chivalry, and the law of succession, have accustomed us to allow a +singular exception, and a woman is often acknowledged the absolute +sovereign of a great kingdom, in which she would be deemed incapable of +exercising the smallest employment, civil or military. But, as the Roman +Emperors were still considered as the generals and magistrates of the +Republic, their wives and mothers, although dignified by the name of +Augusta, were never associated to their personal honors; and a female +reign would have appeared an inexplicable prodigy in the eyes of those +primitive Romans, who married without love, or loved without delicacy or +respect." + +The warlike states named republics in the Middle Ages had no woman Doge, +or Duke, although women rose to the semblance of political power with +empires and kingdoms, in Italy and Spain as well as in Germany and France, +Austria and Russia. + +Let us turn to modern Europe, in which thrones have been occupied now and +again by queens. The progress of woman here, especially in Anglo-Saxon +countries, has been steady, true and inspiring. In the earliest recorded +councils of the race from which we sprang, we see freemen in full armor +casting equal votes. During the ages of feudalism, women who were land- +owners had the same rights as other nobles. They could raise soldiery, +coin money, and administer justice in both civil and criminal proceedings. +In proportion as the aristocratic power lost its hold, women were exempted +from these services and gained in moral influence. The Germanic races were +renowned for their respect for woman, and their love for home. As +constitutional liberty grew, and each Englishman's house became his castle +for defence against arbitrary power, the protection was not for himself +but for his family. A figure-head ruler in feminine attire sits on +England's throne to-day--the England that still unites its church and +state, and in which feudal customs still prevail to some extent. Widows +and spinsters who are property-owners can vote for all offices except the +one charged under the Constitution with the framing and execution of the +laws of the land. Aristocracy decrees that in the House of Lords the +Bishops shall have a voice; but in the House of Commons no clergyman can +hold a seat, and for members of Parliament no woman votes. Would any +Suffragist hold that a clergyman was the inferior of men who do sit in the +House of Commons? They are excluded for the same reason that woman has not +the parliamentary vote--they are looked upon as non-combatants. + +The Greek and Roman republics appear to have followed an instinct that was +unerring in the condition of society when they removed women from the +seats of power as the commonwealth gathered strength. Gibbon, in the +sentences quoted, attributes the fact that queens as well as kings have +occupied the thrones of modern Europe to the chivalry of men toward those +who would yet be incapable of exercising actual power except for the +backing of a standing army, or an hereditary nobility sworn to their +support, both of which are composed solely of men. If this be true, it +should be visible in the workings of the constitutional restrictions upon +monarchies that have developed in the past fifty years, during which the +principle of democratic government has advanced with enormous strides over +a great portion of the globe. + +In the Austro-Hungarian monarchy there is restricted woman suffrage. The +kingdom of Italy has restricted municipal woman suffrage. The little +republic that separates those countries, the land of Tell and the Vaudois, +has direct manhood suffrage only. + +Sweden and Norway are apparently parting company. Sweden chooses to keep +its king and its aristocracy, and it has restricted woman suffrage; but +Norway, which is working toward free institutions, and last year voted to +remove the insignia of union from the Norwegian flag, has no woman +suffrage. [Footnote: In the city of Berne, Switzerland, in 1852, a proxy +vote was given to independent women who paid a commercial tax, but they +made no effort to use it until 1885, when contending political factions +compelled them to do so in a measure. Norway's women have a local school +vote. Both these cases of exception serve to prove the rule that I am +trying to set forth.] + +Autocratic Russia and its Asiatic colonies have more woman suffrage than +England. Finland, a constitutional monarchy, was ceded to the Emperor of +Russia in 1809. Women there have all except the parliamentary suffrage. +The Governor-General of the Senate is nominated by the Emperor, and is +chief of the military force. The National Assembly is convoked by the +Emperor whenever he sees fit. The duties of that Assembly are to consider +laws proposed by the Emperor and elaborated by the Committee of Affairs +and four members nominated by the Emperor, who sit in St. Petersburg. The +Emperor has the veto power over any act of theirs. That National Assembly +consists of representatives of the nobility, the clergy, the burghers, and +the peasantry, the consent of all of whom must be obtained to any measure +that makes a change in the constitution or imposes taxes. But the royal +veto can set aside any decision. + +Iceland, a dependency of Denmark, has municipal woman suffrage, and women +are eligible to municipal office. It has its own legislature, which +governs jointly with the King, the executive power being in the hands of +the King alone. + +In the great extensions of suffrage in England in 1848, an amendment for +the extension of suffrage to women was introduced in Parliament by Mr. +Disraeli. Lord Northcote, Lord John Manners, and other conservatives, +upheld it; but the liberal leaders opposed it, Gladstone and John Bright +among them. John Blight's family were strenuous for the movement, and he +had fancied himself its friend until the issue came; then the old champion +of freedom, proved true to the instinct that guards it in the nation. In +the constantly increasing liberty of the lower classes of England, an +essential principle which excludes women from the parliamentary vote has +been maintained. Lady Spencer Churchill and other Suffrage leaders look to +Viscount Templeton and Lord Salisbury for support to-day. + +A woman-suffrage bill of many years' standing and absurd provisions, has +just passed to a second reading in the House of Commons. Although it was +treated as a joke by all parties, it served to emphasize the fact that Sir +Vernon Harcourt and the Liberals are opposed to any advance in this +direction. + +In the late extension of suffrage in Canada, the movement for woman +suffrage had conservative support, while every liberal leader opposed it. +No South American Republic has woman suffrage. With the deposition of +Liliuokalani, woman's directs political power in the Hawaiian Islands +died. In France only the Anarchists "admit women" to public council, and +that party in Germany has here and there inscribed woman suffrage upon its +banners. + +Not only England, Scotland and Wales, but Canada, definitely excepts the +vote for members of parliament in giving suffrage to woman, and only +widows and spinsters are admitted to the minor forms of franchise. As to +the other British colonies, what is the situation? Much stress has been +laid on what has been termed the progress of the Suffrage movement in +Australasia. There is but one Australian colony in which the legislative +assembly is elected; in the others it is appointed for life, or for short +terms. Where it is thus appointed, women vote on various matters. In +Victoria, which contains the capital city, Melbourne, and which is the +most progressive and democratic colony in Australia, the Legislative +Assembly is elected, and that body is chosen by unrestricted male suffrage +only, while, as with the House of Commons in the mother country, clergymen +are not allowed to sit in it. In West Australia, the newest colony, the +voting is done by men alone. In Cape Colony women have restricted +municipal suffrage; but the Assembly is elected by the vote of men who own +a certain amount of property. + +In the Orange Free State every adult white male is a full burgher, having +a vote for the President, who is chosen for five years. The Transvaal +Republic has no woman suffrage amid its hand-to-hand struggles. + +To comprehend the condition of European governmental affairs, one must +follow the condition of things produced by the struggle of socialistic and +anarchistic elements. Between the King on the one hand, and these forces +on the other, the true Liberal parties are slowly progressing toward free +institutions; both aristocratic and anarchistic movements being more +favorable than liberalism to woman-suffrage aspirations. + +The countries where woman has full suffrage (save in the United States) +are all dependencies of royalty. They are: The Isle of Man, Pitcairn's +Island, New Zealand, and South Australia. The most important of these, New +Zealand, was once a promising colony, but it has been declining for a +quarter of a century. The men outnumber the women by forty thousand. The +act conferring the parliamentary franchise on both European and Maori +women received the royal sanction in 1892. At the session of Parliament +that passed the act a tax was put upon incomes and one upon land, so that +a desperate civilization seemed to be trying all the experiments at once. +Certainly, woman suffrage in New Zealand was not adopted because the +Government was so stable, so strong, so democratic, that these conditions +must thus find fit expression. [Footnote: The Australasian colonies are +taking steps toward the formation of a Federal Union. While this book is +in press news comes that the Federal Convention, by a vote of 23 to 12, +has refused to allow women to vote for members of the House of +Representatives.] + +South Australia not only gives women full suffrage, but makes them +eligible to a seat in Parliament. The colony is a vast, mountainous, +largely unsettled region, with a high proportion of native and Chinese, +and, in 1894, had but 73,000 voters, including the women. The Socialistic +Labor movement, which has played a large part in Australasian politics, +here succeeded in dominating the government. There was an attempt to +establish communistic villages with public money, a proposal to divide the +public money _pro rata,_ and one to build up a system of state life- +insurance; and taxes were to be levied on salaries, and on all incomes +above a certain point. It was found that the sixty thousand women who were +authorized to vote throughout Australia assisted the socialistic schemes +that are hindering progress and that tend to anarchy and not to +republicanism. There is a royal Governor, and suffrage is based on +household and property qualifications. It is an aristocratic and social +combination, not a triumph of democratic ideas or principles. Dr. Jacobi, +in her "Common Sense applied to Woman Suffrage," says: "The refusal to +extend parliamentary suffrage to women who are possessed of municipal +suffrage, does not mean, as Americans are apt to suppose, that women are +counted able to judge about the small concerns of a town, but not about +imperial issues. It means that women are still not counted able to +exercise independent judgment at all, and, therefore, are to remain +counted out when this is called for; but that the property to which they +happen to belong, and which requires representation, must not be deprived +of this on account of an entangling female alliance. This is the very +antipodes of the democratic doctrine, perhaps also somewhat excessive, +that a man requires representation so much that he must not be deprived of +it on account of the accident of not being able to read or write!" + +With Dr. Jacobi's interpretation, I will deal later. What I wish now to do +is, to call attention to her admission of the fact that woman suffrage in +England and in her colonies is not democratic, and to connect it with the +other fact that no republic, from that of Greece to our own, has +introduced it, although manhood suffrage has been universal in Switzerland +for many years, and in France since 1848. + +So it would seem that under a monarchical system, with a standing army and +a hereditary nobility to support the throne, the royal mandate could be +issued by a woman. Any Queen, as well as the one that Alice met in +Wonderland, could say, "Off with his head!" But when freedom grew, and the +democratic idea began to prevail, and each individual man became a king, +and each home a castle, the law given by God and not by man came into +exercise, and upon each man was laid the duty of defending liberty and +those who were physically unfitted to defend themselves. + +Let us turn now to our own country. Technically, at least, women possessed +the suffrage in our first settlements. In New England, in the early days, +when church-membership as the basis of the franchise excluded three- +fourths of the male inhabitants from its exercise, women could vote. Under +the old Provincial charters, from 1691 to 1780, they could vote for all +elective offices. From 1780 to 1785, under the Articles of Confederation, +they could vote for all elective offices except the Governor, the Council, +and the Legislature. The comment made upon this by the Suffrage writers +is, that "the fact that woman exercised the right of suffrage amid so many +restrictions, is very significant of the belief in her right to the +ballot-box." My comment is, that the same lesson we have learned in Europe +is repeated here with wonderful emphasis. Under the transported +aristocracy of churchly power in the state, they shared the undemocratic +rule. When freedom broadened a little, and, under a system that still +acknowledged allegiance to the British Crown, all property-holders or +other "duly qualified" colonists could vote, they still had the voice that +England grants to-day, the voice of an estate. When liberty took another +step and a league was formed of "firm friendship" in which each Colony was +to be independent and yet banded for offensive and defensive aid, the +women were retired from the special vote on the result of which lay the +actual execution of the law. But this country was not yet a republic, or +even a nation. Washington himself said that the state of things under the +Articles of Confederation was hardly removed from anarchy. In 1789 a +constitution was adopted, which made the American people a nation. Its +preamble read: "We, the people of the United States, in order to form a +more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, +provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure +the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and +establish this Constitution for the United States of America." Under this +Constitution the last vestiges of churchly political rule, and of +property-qualification for voting, have gradually disappeared. New Jersey +was the last State to repeal her property-qualification laws. In 1709 she +made "male freeholders" who held a certain amount of property the only +voters. In 1790 her Constitution, through an error in wording, admitted +"all inhabitants" with certain property to vote. This was in force until +1807, when an act was passed conferring the suffrage upon "free white male +citizens twenty-one years of age worth fifty pounds proclamation money, +clear estate," etc. From 1790 to 1807 a good many women, generally from +the Society of Friends, took part in elections. After 1807 they attempted +to do so, as owners of property. Finally, that qualification for the male +voter was done away with, and with it the woman-suffrage agitation +disappeared. + +State after State, in carrying out the compact of the Federal Republic, +had inserted the word "male" into the Constitutions that embodied the +American conception of a more vital and enduring freedom. + +But there are now four States of the Union where women have full suffrage, +a few where they have a measure of municipal suffrage, and many where they +have the school suffrage. What bearing do these facts have upon my claim +that woman suffrage is undemocratic? + +The States where they have full suffrage are Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, and +Idaho. How far was its introduction into these States the result of +advanced legislation in accord with true republicanism? Utah Territory was +the first spot in the country in which the measure gained a foothold, and +that was not believed by its introducers to be a part of the United +States. The Mormons who founded Salt Lake City supposed themselves to be +settling on Mexican territory, outside the jurisdiction of American law. +Woman suffrage was almost coincident with its beginnings, and it came as a +legitimate part of the union of state and church, of communism, of +polygamy. The dangers that especially threaten a republican form of +government are anarchy, communism, and religious bigotry; and two of these +found their fullest expression, in this country, in the Mormon creed and +practice. Fealty to Mormonism was disloyalty to the United States +Government. Thus, the introduction of woman suffrage within our borders +was not only undemocratic, it was anti-democratic. + +Woman suffrage was secured in Wyoming by means that bring dishonor upon +democracy. Wyoming was organized as a Territory in 1868. Many of its +native settlers were from Utah. For its vast, mountainous extent of nearly +98,000 square miles, the census gave a population of only 9,118 persons. +Of these the native-born numbered 5,605, foreign-born, 3,513. The males +numbered 7,219; the females, 1,899. The "History of Woman Suffrage" +records the fact that the measure was secured in the first Territorial +legislature through the political trickery of an illiterate and +discredited man, who was in the chair. Mr. Bryce, in "The American +Commonwealth," alludes in a note to the same fact. Women voted in 1870. In +1871 a bill was passed repealing the suffrage act, but was vetoed by the +Governor, on the ground that, having been admitted, it must be given a +fair trial. An attempt to pass the repeal over his veto was lost by a +single vote. Certainly, the entrance of woman suffrage into Wyoming was +not a triumph of democratic progress and principle. + +Colorado was admitted into the Union in 1876, and great efforts were made +by Suffragists to secure the "Centennial" State. This resulted in a +submission of the question to the people, who rejected it by a majority of +7,443 in a total vote of 20,665. From the first of the agitation for the +free coinage of silver, Colorado has been enthusiastically in favor of +that measure. In 1892 her devotion to it caused all parties to unite on +that issue and gave the vote of the State to General Weaver, Populist +candidate for President, and to David H. Waite, Populist candidate for +Governor. The question of woman suffrage was resubmitted to the people at +this election, and the constitutional amendment concerning it was carried +by a majority of only 5,000 in a total vote of 200,000. Neither that +movement nor its results present triumphant democracy. + +In 1894 the Populist party of Idaho put a plank in its platform favoring +the submission of a woman-suffrage amendment to the people. In 1896 the +Free Silver Populist movement swept the State. A majority of the votes +cast on the Suffrage question were cast in its favor, but not a majority +of all the votes cast at the election. The supreme courts have generally +held that, in so important a matter, a complete majority vote was +required, but the Supreme Court of Idaho did not so hold, and woman +suffrage is now established in that State. This, also, is hardly a success +of sound democracy. + +The subject of woman suffrage has lately been dealt with by two States +that represent republican progress at its best. They are New York and +Massachusetts. In the former State a Constitutional Convention in 1894 +gave an impartial hearing to the subject, and decided not to submit to the +people an amendment striking the word "male" from the State Constitution. +Massachusetts at its State election in 1895 asked the people to vote upon +the question of extending municipal suffrage to women, and the answer was +given in a heavy adverse majority. Fewer than four in one hundred women +qualified to vote on the subject voted in its favor, and half a million +women declined to vote at all. A majority of over 100,000 votes was cast +against it by men. Utah and New York, Wyoming and Massachusetts, which +States do Americans hold up as nearest their model? In which have women +made most progress, and showed themselves most likely to understand their +rights, privileges and duties? + +During the late Presidential election the issues passed the boundary that +separates party politics from patriotic faith. For months preceding that +struggle the Suffrage body had conducted the most efficient campaign in +its history. When the test came, California voted for sound money against +repudiation, for authority against anarchy, by a small majority, and threw +its ballots heavily against woman suffrage. With the enthusiastic help of +its woman voters, Colorado gave its electoral voice 16 to 1 against sound +money and sound Americanism. Which State can claim that its action rings +truest to the stroke of honest metal in finance and in defence of national +honor? + +A few States have extended municipal suffrage to woman. It is generally +local and restricted Only in Kansas is there full municipal suffrage. Dr. +Jacobi, in her "Common Sense," says: "Municipal suffrage in Kansas demands +no property qualification, and its exercise therefore does not differ in +the least from that required in a Presidential election." This is a +mistake, for the difference is essential and illustrates the undemocratic +character of woman suffrage. Municipal suffrage in Kansas, like the +Territorial suffrage in Wyoming, was given by legislative act, and could +be done away with by another legislative act without appeal to the people, +or any change of the Constitution. It did not touch the vital question +whether women, in a democracy, could form a component part of the +government. Mrs. Stanton well understood that difference. Kansas had long +possessed local municipal suffrage when, in 1894, the question of granting +full suffrage, by constitutional amendment, was submitted to the people. +Mrs. Stanton then wrote: "My hope now rests with Kansas. If that fails +too, we must trust no longer to the Republican and Democratic parties, but +henceforth give our money, our eloquence, our enthusiasm to a People's +party that will recognize woman as an equal factor in a new civilization." +There was enough leaven of republicanism working then to cause the old +fighting-ground, the free-soil State, to reject the amendment by a popular +majority of 35,000. To the "People's Party" in Kansas woman suffrage may +look for the most striking illustration of its results. Where municipal +suffrage could be secured only by constitutional enactment, and was so +secured, it would differ merely in degree from presidential suffrage; but +it never has been so secured in any State except those that give full +constitutional suffrage. It is on a par with school suffrage, except that +legislative enactment extends the vote to town and city matters. + +The history of the school suffrage affords another proof of the +incompatibility of republicanism and constitutional suffrage for woman. +Dr. Jacobi recognizes the difference between constitutional and school +suffrage when she says: "Women continually sign petitions for this +privilege, till startled by the discovery that it also means something +else. It means, however, in the State of New York, according to the +decision of the Supreme Court, that woman can only enjoy this privilege +thoroughly if empowered by constitutional amendment to vote for all +officers as well as for school commissioners." The States that have +refused to comply with the Suffragists' demand for the elective franchise, +the most progressive States, have been first to grant school suffrage, +under constitutional limits. The twenty-seven odd States that grant school +suffrage have had different methods of dealing with the question, because +their laws differ, but both the positive proof of its being granted, and +the negative proof of its being withheld, tell the same story in regard to +the fundamental principle involved. This is shown strikingly in the +situation in Kansas. Women have full municipal suffrage, and the Supreme +Court of that State decided that they could vote for school treasurer, +which was a charter office, but could not vote for County Superintendent +of Schools, because that office was provided for in the Constitution. The +school suffrage may or may not have a property qualification attached. +That makes no difference. The difference is the essential one between +delegated power and sovereign power. The States differ so widely in their +methods of dealing with municipal as well as school legislation, that only +a study of the laws of each State will reveal the situation. In Ohio, in +1895, for instance, the Legislature passed a bill enabling women to vote +on a municipal tax-levy, which the courts held was unconstitutional, while +they granted votes on license and other local questions. + +In answer to the question whether, in Massachusetts, a woman could be a +member of a school committee, the Supreme Court returned the following +decision in 1874: "The Constitution contains nothing relating to school +committees; the office is created and regulated by statute; and the +Constitution confers upon the General Court full power and authority to +name and settle annually, or provide by fixed laws for naming and +settling, all civil officers within the Commonwealth the election and +constitution of whom are not in the Constitution otherwise provided for. +The question is therefore answered in the affirmative." The Supreme Court +of New York, in 1892, held that "School Commissioners are constitutional +officers within Article II. part 1 of the Constitution, and consequently +the law of 1892 giving women the right to vote for them is void." The case +was that of Matilda Joslyn Gage. The office of School Commissioner was +created after the adoption of the Constitution, and it was therefore urged +that the Constitution did not bear upon it; but the Supreme Court further +decided that the law gave the Legislature the right to appoint or to elect +the Commissioner; and as they had decided that the office should be +elective, the women could not vote for that office. They vote for +district-school officers under various local permissions or limitations. +In a case brought to decide the right of women to vote for County +Superintendent of Schools the Supreme Court of Illinois, in 1893, held +that, as the office was designated in the Constitution as elective, women +could not vote for it. The decision further said. "The votes for State +Superintendent of Instruction, and County Superintendent, are provided for +by law, and the Legislature cannot change the law. It may be that it is +competent for the Legislature to provide that women who are citizens of +the United States and over twenty-one may vote at elections held for +school directors and other school officers not mentioned in the +Constitution." Later, the Supreme Court held that women were entitled to +vote for school trustees, as "no officer of the school district is +mentioned in the State Constitution." + +The Supreme Court of Ohio, in 1894, held that the provision of the act of +April 24, 1894, conferring upon women the right to vote at elections of +certain school officers, is valid, such right being within the legislative +power to provide for the establishment and maintenance of public schools, +and not within Article V. part 1, of the Constitution, which limits the +right to male citizens. Judge Shauck says: "The whole subject of the +public schools is delegated to the Assembly. As the common-school +organization is wholly a creation of the Legislature, it is in the power +of the Legislature to determine the qualifications of an elector and +office-holder in it." In upholding his ruling, he cited similar decisions +from the Supreme Courts of Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Massachusetts, +Michigan, and Iowa. + +This rapid survey suggests, it seems to me, that, instead of being "a +legitimate outgrowth of the fundamental principles of our government," +woman suffrage is really incompatible with true republican forms. Pre- +civilized conditions, aristocratic tendencies, the forces that would +destroy government--these appear to be its natural allies. We must study +more closely its connection with representative government the better to +comprehend this portentous truth. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +WOMAN SUFFRAGE AND THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC. + + +The writers of the "History of Woman Suffrage" give the following account +of the founding of their Association. In July, 1848, Elizabeth Cady +Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Martha O. Wright, and Ann McClintock issued an +unsigned call for a convention, which was asked to consider the social, +civil, and religious condition and rights of woman; and in preparation for +the meeting, they wrote a "Declaration of Sentiments," which was adopted +by the assembly. They say, in describing the writing of this declaration:-- +"The reports of Peace, Temperance, and Anti-Slavery conventions were +examined, but all alike seemed too tame and pacific for the inauguration +of a rebellion such as the world had never before seen. We knew women had +wrongs, but how to state them was the difficulty, and this was increased +from the fact that we ourselves were fortunately organized and +conditioned.... After much delay, one of the circle took up the +Declaration of 1776, and read it aloud with spirit and emphasis, and it +was at once decided to adopt the historic document, with some slight +changes. Knowing that women must have more to complain of than men under +any circumstances possibly could, and seeing the Fathers had eighteen +grievances, a protracted search was made through statute books, church +usages, and the customs of society to find that exact number." + +In such solemnly puerile fashion did they work out a travesty on one of +the most august utterances ever penned. A young man who was present +remarked: "Tour grievances must be grievous indeed when you are obliged to +go to books in order to find them out." He might have added, "And they +must be false indeed when you have to found most of your charges on dead- +letter statutes and outgrown usages and customs." + +The Preamble of their Declaration reads: "When, in the course of human +events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the family of man to +assume among the people of the earth a position different from that which +they have hitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of nature and of +nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind +requires that they should declare the causes that impel them to such a +course." + +The declaration is as follows: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: +That all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their +Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, +liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights +governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of +the governed. Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these +ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to +it, and to insist upon the institution of a new government, laying its +foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as +to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. +Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should +not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all +experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while +evils are suffer able, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to +which they were accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and +usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to +reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their duty to throw off such +government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has +been the patient sufferance of the women under this government, and such +is now the necessity which constrains them to demand the equal station to +which they are entitled. The history of mankind is a history of repeated +injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct +object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove this, +let facts be submitted to a candid world." Then follows a categorical +parody of the eighteen grievances, which will be duly considered in this +and later chapters. + +After thirty years of Suffrage effort, the leaders say that this +instrument contained all that the most radical have ever claimed. The +Fathers of the Revolution say in their Preamble: "When, in the course of +human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the +political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume +among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the +laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the +opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which +impel them to the separation." The Mothers of the Woman's Rebellion say: +"When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion +of the family of man to assume among the people of the earth a position +different from that which they have hitherto occupied, but one to which +the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect for +the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes that +impel them to such a course." The strained and ridiculous attitude +produced by ignoring the essential difference between a political movement +and a sex movement is visible in every line, and yet that instinct which +finds for a new cause its appropriate channel never carried more truly +than in this presentment of the ultimate purpose of woman suffrage. The +Fathers were met to dissolve the relations that bound their land +politically to a foreign power, and to form a separate and equal nation. +The Mothers were met to dissolve the relations that bound their sex +politically to man, and to form a separate and equal sex organization. The +Fathers proposed to free men, women, and children from the yoke of +England. The Mothers proposed to free women and girls from the yoke of +men. It is suggestive to consider the "slight changes," between the two +Declarations. + +The Fathers of the Revolution begin their protest by saying: "We hold +these truths to be self-evident:--That all men are created equal, that +they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that +among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." The Mothers +of the Woman's Rebellion add nothing to the meaning, but detract greatly +from the force of its expression, when in their parody they say: "We hold +these truths to be self-evident: That all men and women are created equal, +and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that +among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." These women +of all in America were the first to belittle themselves by seeming to +assume that in a revolutionary document that was promulgated to declare a +determination to wrest from tyranny the liberty that was an inalienable +right for all, they and their sex were excluded because the generic term +"man" was employed in relation to another inalienable right, which was +about to be set forth,--that of revolution against intolerable tyranny. +The Americans who framed that instrument would have been the last men in +the world to assert that women were not the equals of men. They were not +discussing abstract human or sex conditions. They met "to institute a new +government." The Mothers of the Woman's Rebellion had an inalienable right +to meet "to institute a new government," if they believed as sincerely as +did the Fathers of the Revolution that "a long train of abuses and +usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinced a design to +reduce them under absolute despotism." Life, liberty, and the pursuit of +happiness were their natural and God-given rights. If they truly believed +that these were trampled upon by government, they might be justified in +revolting and attempting to form a new government. That they did not so +believe, seems to be proved by their statement that "they knew that woman +had wrongs, but how to state them was the difficulty, and this was +increased from the fact that they themselves were fortunately organized +and conditioned." The Declaration of Independence meant war against the +ever-growing encroachment of despotism. The gauntlet was thrown down at +the feet of a king by his subjects. The Declaration of Sentiments meant +war against the whole social order as then constituted. The gauntlet was +thrown down at the feet of man by those who declared him to be a +determined foe. + +They had not the remotest notion of "instituting a new government," far +from it; they relied upon the old government to sustain them in making +their attempted "rebellion" a revolution. Without the backing of the +state's defence, they had no expectation or hope of enforcing any new +enactment they might desire. They were gladly consenting to be governed, +in order to prove that they withheld consent. + +Should woman suffrage prevail, the foundation principles of democracy +would have to be overthrown and "a new government instituted" in which the +power should be delegated and not direct, if the nation thus formed was to +"assume among the powers of the earth a separate and equal station." The +leaders of the Suffrage movement well understood that they claimed no +inalienable right to institute a new government, and this is again shown +in another "slight change" made by them. The first count in the suffrage +indictment against all men, but especially against those of the American +Republic, reads as follows: "He has never permitted her to exercise her +inalienable right to the elective franchise." The Fathers made no claim or +suggestion that the suffrage was an inalienable right, or a right at all. +Not only is there nothing to intimate that voting was a natural right, but +from that day to this it has been the theory and the practice of our +Government to control the suffrage. The fact that "governments were +instituted among men" for the purpose of securing inalienable rights, +proves that in the opinion of the Declarers the method of instituting a +government was not in itself inalienable. Governments to secure certain +inalienable rights are instituted among men, wrote Jefferson, "deriving +their just powers from the consent of the governed." This was not the +first government founded upon "consent of the governed." The English +government had been so founded, but our fathers now refused their consent. +That particular government could no longer exist for them with their +consent. In their judgment, it had become destructive of the proper ends +of all government, and so they proclaimed that the inalienable right to +liberty made it--to use the words of the Declaration--"the right, the +duty, of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to +institute a new government." + +In the New York Constitutional Convention of 1867, Mr. George William +Curtis defended the proposition so to amend the Constitution as to extend +the suffrage to women. In the course of his eloquent remarks he said: "The +Chairman of the Committee asked Miss Anthony whether, if suffrage was a +natural right, it could be denied to children? Her answer seemed to me +perfectly satisfactory. She said simply, 'All that we ask is an equal and +not an arbitrary regulation. If _you_ have the right, _we_ have it.'" To +me it seems to discredit the logical powers both of Miss Anthony and of +Mr. Curtis that one should have made this reply and the other should have +rested content with it. That was a pertinent question, and it was not +answered at all. To say "if you have the right, we have it," is not to +tell whether one thinks children should have it. As a matter of fact, an +agitation of "the rights of minors" arose from the discussion of "natural +right," and also an agitation for "minority representation" that is +continued to this day. Mr. Curtis added: "The honorable Chairman would +hardly deny that to regulate the exercise of a right according to obvious +reason and experience is one thing, to deny it absolutely and forever is +another." To regulate a law is to abolish it, either relatively or +absolutely, for some, and to maintain it for others. When the State of New +York says that no alien who has not been naturalized shall vote, that no +boy under twenty-one shall vote, that no person resident in one town or +ward shall vote in another, that no criminal or pauper shall vote,--it +acts on the natural principle of self-defence, which contravenes the dogma +of a natural right of any one to the suffrage. On that principle it would +be impossible for the Congress to impeach a President; to forbid, as it +did, those who had been in rebellion from voting; or to deny the suffrage +to a child or to any human being. Government itself becomes impossible. +Judge Story, whom Suffrage writers claim as favorable to their cause on +other grounds, says that the right of voting has always been treated as a +granted and not a natural right, derived from and regulated by each +country according to its ideas of government. Both Federal and State +courts have decided again and again that there is no such thing as a +natural right to suffrage. + +The "consent of the governed" certainly meant something very different to +our fathers, and to our statesmen, and to ourselves, from what it could +mean to any other government on earth. Although the phrase itself may have +been a euphemism which sprang from Jefferson's sympathy with the mighty +rumblings of feeling that preceded the French Revolution, still, it was +certainly meant that, so far as they could make it so, there should be +vastly more consenting by popular vote than had been dreamed of in the +mother country. But it did not mean that each and every individual in the +state must consent to each and every law that governed him; for not only +has no government ever been instituted which derived "just powers" in that +way, but none ever will be, for there never can be such unanimity. It did +not mean that every individual must consent to be governed somehow, by +some scheme of government; for its laws were carefully framed so as to +compel the external allegiance of those who never consent--the criminal +and the anarchist. It did not mean even that consent, in the sense of +agreement, was expected from a large body, or a small body, as the case +might happen, of those who held views opposed to the policies that were +controlling at any given time. It meant just what Jefferson meant in that +other dictum of his: "The will of the majority is the natural law of every +society, and the only sure guardian of the rights of man." Together they +interpret each other, and are worthy of our Declaration and our Bill of +Rights. + +The inalienable right to liberty in all mankind forbids the right of +anarchy in any of mankind; and the question of woman suffrage, strange as +it may appear, actually narrows itself down, as it seems to me, to the +question whether we shall have democracy or anarchy. Democratic government +is at an end when those who issue decrees are not identical with those who +can enforce those decrees. + +But, after all, the claim to suffrage as a natural right has been +practically abandoned by those who first made that claim. Their next +proposition was, that it was a universal right, springing from the +necessary conditions of organized society, and so should be granted to +woman as a member of that society. They say in their Declaration: "He +deprived her of the first right of a citizen--the elective franchise." +Chief Justice Waite of the United States Supreme Court decided that +citizenship carried with it no voting power or right. The same decision +has been handed down by many courts in disposing of test cases. + +It seems to me quite as evident that what is now called universal manhood +suffrage does not rest upon any belief by the state that this is "the +first right of a citizen," because no one doubts that if the time came +when a majority deemed that the preservation of the state depended upon +disfranchising a number of voters, they would be disfranchised although +they remained citizens. The Suffrage leaders have, in theory at least, +also abandoned the claim to suffrage on the ground of their universal +right as citizens. A proof of this is seen in the fact that at various +times they have suggested the extension of suffrage under qualification. +Among the latest that I have noticed, is an address of Mrs. Stanton's to a +Suffrage Convention, held in 1894, in which she proposed the following: +"Resolved, that the women of New York petition the Legislature of the +State to extend the suffrage to women on an educational qualification." +She must therefore believe that the Legislature has the _legal_ right to +qualify it for men; and to withhold it from women is but an extension of +the right to qualify suffrage, because it only says: "We do not consider +woman citizens qualified to be voters." Writing a year ago, Mrs. Stanton +said: "It is the duty of the educated women of this Republic to protest +against the extension of the suffrage to another man until they themselves +are enfranchised!" Thus it would appear that Mrs. Stanton does not believe +in universal suffrage. A Suffrage speaker in New York not long ago said +naively: "We [the women, when enfranchised] will vote to withhold the +suffrage from the ignorant." She did not explain what would happen if the +ignorant voted not to have the suffrage withheld; nor did she appear to +realize that she was practically admitting that the present voters have +the right to withhold the suffrage from those whom _they_ consider +unfitted for it. + +But it is not true that American women did not, and do not, "consent to be +governed." They have always consented loyally and joyfully. From the time +of the Boston Tea Party down to the Civil War, and in such times of peace +and prosperity as were indicated by the Columbian Exposition, when the +Government formally asked the assistance of its woman citizens, they +showed their consent by their deeds, and only the suffrage faction treated +the invitation to share in the Exposition after the immemorial fashion of +a discontented element. And the Suffragists themselves consent to be +governed every time they accept the protection of the law or invoke it +against a debtor; for they thereby acknowledge its proper application to +themselves if the case were reversed. + +The second count in the list of political grievances runs: "He has +compelled her to submit to laws in the formation of which she had no +voice." This was not true, for the women who wrote that sentence were free +to use their voices in regard to every law they desired to affect, and +circumstances have proved that they were sure of being heard, and, if the +law were just, and for the general good, of assisting materially to +establish it. At the very time when Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia +Mott were writing that indictment against the United States Government, +Dorothea Dix was presenting a memorial to the National Congress asking for +an appropriation of five hundred thousand acres of the public lands to +endow hospitals for the indigent insane. That bill failed to pass, but in +1850 another bill, which she presented, asking for ten millions of acres, +passed the House and failed in the Senate merely for want of time to +consider it. Four years later a bill making appropriations of the ten +millions of acres to the separate States passed both houses, and President +Pierce vetoed it, because he believed the general Government had no +constitutional power to make such appropriations. She then went to the +Legislatures of the States, with the result that is so well known. Rhode +Island, Pennsylvania, New York, Indiana, Illinois, Louisiana, and North +Carolina founded lunatic asylums, and the work was begun which is +culminating in the separation of the insane from the criminal, the women +from the men, in every town and county of the land. The right of petition +is not only as open to women as to men, but because of the non-partisan +character of their claims and suggestions they find quicker hearing. Miss +Louise Lee Schuyler has been more successful in securing the enactment of +laws for which she presented the need than any one politician in the State +of New York, before whose Legislature they have both pleaded,--he with a +vote which had to contend against other votes, she with a voice that spoke +the united mind of a body of philanthropic women. There was no unjust law +which the Suffrage Association could not have changed during these fifty +years, had it cared to try, and indeed its members make the boast that +many of the changes are their own. Change and improvement of laws was not +their aim. It was a vote upon changing or not changing laws that they +sought for. The difference is world-wide. + +The third count in the indictment runs: "He has withheld from her rights +which are given to the most ignorant men--both natives and foreigners." +Dr. Jacobi represented the Suffrage cause before the Special Committee of +the Constitutional Convention of New York State in 1894. After drawing, in +fine and truthfully glowing words, a picture of woman's progress under the +institutions and laws of the United States, she said: "For the first time, +all political right, privilege and power reposes undisguisedly on the one +brutal fact of sex, unsupported, untempered, unalloyed by any attribute of +education, any justification of intelligence, any glamour of wealthy any +prestige of birth, any insignia of actual power.... To-day, the immigrants +pouring in through the open gates of our seaport towns, the Indian when +settled in severalty, the negro hardly emancipated from the degradation of +two hundred years of slavery,--may all share in the sovereignty of the +State. The white woman,--the woman in whose veins runs the blood of those +heroic colonists who founded our country, of those women who helped to +sustain the courage of their husbands in the Revolutionary War; the woman +who may have given the flower of her youth and health in the service of +our Civil War--that woman is excluded. To-day women constitute the only +class of sane people excluded from the franchise, the only class deprived +of political representation, except the tribal Indians and the Chinese." +To the same effect the editors of the "Suffrage History" say: "The +superiority of man does not enter into the demand for suffrage; for in +this country all men vote; and as the lower orders, of men are not +superior to the higher orders of women, they must hold and exercise the +right of self-government on some other ground than superiority to woman." +Here it would seem that Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony had been thinking, +but they never followed their own thought to its inevitable conclusion. +Universal manhood suffrage does relieve the men of this country from the +unjust aspersion the women of the Suffrage movement put upon them, that +they excluded women on account of inferiority. + +No native American, who by the very fact of that nativity is bound to +support the Constitution of the United States, and no foreign-born citizen +who has taken the oath of allegiance to it, has a right by his vote to do +anything that will imperil or impede the carrying out of its principles +and its commands. "The establishment of justice, the insurement of +domestic tranquillity, provision for the common defence, security in the +blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity," cannot be perfected +or maintained without the present exercise and the reserve power of +manhood strength. This Government laid aside all "attribute of education, +or glamour of wealth, or prestige of birth," and committed its life to the +keeping of its defenders. In this land, the vote is the "insignia of +actual power," but it is only the insignia; the power to defend themselves +and those who make country and home worth defending, lies with the +individual defenders. To attempt to put it into the hands of those who are +not physically fitted to maintain the obligations that may result from any +vote or any legislative act, is to render law a farce, and to betray the +trust imposed upon them by the constitution they have sworn to uphold. +Universal manhood suffrage is the crowning result in the long evolution of +government. Our statesmen of the Revolutionary period did not contemplate +it. But stability was the thing for which they sought--the thing for which +all statesmen of all times have been searching. If a government is not +stable, it is of little consequence that it is full of noble ideals; and +the most far-reaching thought has now grasped the idea that manhood +strength is the natural and only defence of the state. This is the +underlying theory of our Government, the one solid rock on which it rests. +"When any question of governmental policy comes up, we virtually decide +it, sooner or later, by a manhood vote; and as the decision has a majority +of the men of the country behind it, there is no power that can overthrow +it. If we attempt to establish policies or execute laws to which a +majority of the men are opposed, we throw away our one assurance of +stability, and are in constant danger of revolution. Even in the +comparatively brief history of our Republic, there are plentiful instances +to show that a majority of men will not submit to a minority, no matter +how many non-combatants are joined with that minority. To give women a +position of apparent power, without its reality, would be to make our +Government forever unstable. + +"This is placing the Christian and civilized Government that stands as an +example of peaceful progress on a foundation of brute force," cries the +Suffragist. The founders of the Woman Suffrage movement apparently did not +take the least account of either the military or the judicial powers that +are provided for in every State constitution, as well as in the Nation's. +They demanded "immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which +belong to them as citizens of the United States," but said not a word +about the duties, disabilities, and money loss involved in the possession +of those rights and privileges. The Fathers of the Revolution closed their +Declaration of Independence from the tyranny of England by pledging "their +lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor" to attain it. The Mothers of +the Woman's Rebellion closed their Declaration of Independence from the +tyranny of man, and especially from the tyranny of the United States +Government, with a pledge to distribute tracts and hold conventions, while +they depended upon the courtesy of the tyrants to protect them in the +peaceful execution of their design. Is it any wonder that the descendants +of the old heroes who had fought their way to our liberties smiled when +the by-laws of the would-be revolt were handed to them? + +When the attention of the women was called to the fact that force was +needed, and that women were exempt from military service and jury and +police duty, they answered that "In an age when the wrongs of society are +adjusted in the courts and at the ballot-box, material force yields to +reason and majorities." So successful has our Government been in carrying +out the benign purposes for which its heroes staked their lives, their +fortunes, and their sacred honor, that in ordinary times we see little of +the strength that stands quietly but firmly behind every law's enactment +and every poll's decision. The "strong arm" of the law would lose its +power to compel obedience if behind the decree of judge, jury, and +legislators there was not a sheriff or a body of militia ready to commit +the unconsenting criminal to prison, or to take care of an unruly +minority. At an election, the minority do not acquiesce in the decision of +the majority because the outcome of the vote has convinced them that the +majority were right, and they were wrong. They have not become suddenly +converted to the views of the majority. That decision, as recorded by the +ballot, shows that if the minority do not keep their opinion in abeyance, +there are men enough on the other side to compel them. Civilization has +advanced so far that, instead of blows there are arguments in court, +instead of bullets there are ballots at the polls; but the blows and the +bullets must always be ready, in case the arguments and the ballots are +unheeded. The physical strength that was given to man to use, like every +other gift, for the good of the race, he is so using when he holds it as a +_dernier ressort_ for law and order. + +Dr. Jacobi says, in her address, "capacity to bear arms, in fulfilment of +military duty, is not, in the State of New York, reckoned among the +necessary qualifications of voters." The statement is also made by other +Suffragists that "numerous classes of men who enjoy political rights are +exempt from military duty,--all men over forty-five, all who suffer mental +or physical disability, such as the loss of an eye or a forefinger; +clergymen, physicians, Quakers, school-teachers, professors, and +presidents of colleges, judges, legislators, congressmen, state-prison +officials, and all county, State, and National officers; fathers, +brothers, or sons having certain relatives dependent upon them for +support, all of these summed up in every State would make millions who may +be exempted, and therefore there is no force in the plea that if women +vote they must fight." It is not true that any class of voters is exempt. +The State, regulating that matter as it regulates the age and residence of +voters, as long as it has more defenders than it needs for immediate use, +makes demand upon the youngest or strongest, but if it needs them all, +then all must serve. Again, all, whether young or old, perfect or +imperfect, must be reckoned with as elements in making up the count. +Lawless men do not exempt themselves from riot and rebellion because they +are lame or over forty-five. In the South, during the Rebellion, there +were few indeed who did not serve in some capacity. If there were blind +and aged men enough to make a real difference in majorities, Americans +would quickly see the propriety of doing as some republics that have to +stand with arms more "at attention" have done, and exclude them from the +vote. + +But, suppose all those mentioned were really exempt, how would that apply +to women? If a like number were counted out, there would still be a goodly +array, from the maiden of twenty-one to the matron of forty-five, from +which to draw. Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony write: "Women have led armies +in all ages, have held positions in the army and navy for years in +disguise, have fought, bled, and died on the battlefield in our late war." +The isolated occasions on which they have done so are not such as to +commend the practice, neither do the Suffragists propose seriously to +commend it. Dr. Jacobi, in her address before the Committee of the +Constitutional Convention, says: "We do not admit that exemption from +military duty is a concession of courtesy, for which women should be so +grateful as to refrain from asking for anything else. The military +functions performed by men, and so often perverted to most atrocious uses, +have never been more than the equivalent for the function of child-bearing +imposed by nature upon women. It is not a fanciful nor sentimental, it is +an exact and just equivalent. The man who exposes his life in battle, can +do no more than his mother did in the hour she bore him. And the functions +of maternity persist, and will persist, to the end of time,--while the +calls to arms are becoming so faint and rare that three times since the +Revolutionary War, an entire generation of men has grown up without having +heard them." + +This question of military service is not a question of equivalent at all-- +sentimental or otherwise; it is a question of the actual service, and as +to the service to the state given by women in bearing sons, the men work +not only to support those sons but to support also their mothers and +sisters, and that far beyond the child-bearing age of the mother. + +As to the rareness of the calls, I read of seven wars since the +Revolution, and three insurrections, not counting the riots and strikes at +Chicago, Homestead, Brooklyn, and in the mountains in the West. Dr. Jacobi +said in an article in the "New York Sun," two years ago, "We do not vote +for war." That appears like a quibble, for we vote for what brings, or may +bring it; but neither is it exact in fact. Three times, at least, in our +history men have deposited their ballots in the box, knowing that the +result meant peace or war. These were at the second election of Madison in +1812, the election of Polk in 1844, and that most solemn of all the acts +of our country-men, the second election of President Lincoln. There have +been other elections in which war issues were linked with the decisions, +but in a less direct way. + +The same writer says also, "The will of the majority rules, for the time +being, not, as has been crudely asserted, because it possesses the power, +by brute force, to compel the minority to obey its behests; but because, +after ages of strife, it has been found more convenient, more equitable, +more conducive to the welfare of the state, that the minority should +submit, until, through argument and persuasion, they shall have been able +to win over the majority. Now that this stage in the evolution of modern +society has been reached, it has become possible for women to demand their +share also in the expression of the public opinion that is to rule. They +could not claim this while it was necessary to defend opinions by arms; +but this is no longer either necessary or expected." How long is it since +this comfortable state of things was evolved? Has England consented to it? +In view of Venezuela and the Monroe Doctrine it would be necessary to have +her. Has Spain mentioned her resignation of a right to appeal to arms in +case she was not pleased with the conduct of our Government in regard to +Cuba? Does the Sultan know about it, so that in case we see a good fair +fighting chance to help the Armenians he will understand that the ages of +strife are over, and that persuasion has been found more equitable and +convenient than a resort to arms? And the Czar, and the erratic German +Emperor, are they in the evolutionary agreement? Force is just what men +are able to make it. It is not brutish unless it is brutishly used. There +is as much force in the world to-day as there ever has been, but it is +better applied. It is the object of a Christian civilization to persuade +more and more men to come to the defence of good against evil in forms of +government. Despotism and absolutism are corrupt uses of force. +Republicanism and a constitutional government are its nobler uses. But the +force is still behind them, or there would be no power to continue such +liberal forms. During the first Republic, Marathon and Thermopylae saved +the principle of Western democracy against Oriental despotism, Salamis and +Plataea saved Greek letters and Greek art to the continents that were yet +to be. Christianity changed the motive but not the method in evolution; +and, finally in the last great Republic, the American Revolution +proclaimed liberty of thought, the war of 1812 secured American +independence, while, beside the wandering Antietam and on the field of +Gettysburg "green regiments went to their graves like beds" that the Union +might live, and that human slavery might die. Manhood force, led by +intelligence and goodness, is the bulwark of that maternity that must +persist if heroes are to be. Dr. Jacobi's admission that women could not +claim the vote while it was necessary to defend opinions by arms, is a +vital one, for it contravenes her entire argument. + +Another plea of the Suffrage leaders is that "men send substitutes, and so +could women." The answer in regard to exempt classes will apply here also, +because in case of need both substitute and substituter are obliged to +serve. During our Civil War the fact that a man had sent a substitute did +not prevent him from being called in the next draft. The state claims both +men as its defenders. But whom do the women propose to substitute? Other +women? No, they propose to substitute men! The Suffragists seriously +suggest that half the population, exempted by nature from military duty, +shall become organic members of a government whose reliance, embodied in +every constitution, is upon the ability and the willingness of its organic +members to do military duty in defence of those constitutions, and that +this exempted half may have it as their sole office, in case of war, to +vote when and where the lives, the fortunes, and the sacred honor of those +other organic members shall be laid down or imperilled. Suffragists seem +to forget, when they boast of Joan of Arc, that the army she led was +masculine. + +The English socialist, Mrs. Stanton Blatch, daughter of Elizabeth Cady +Stanton, in her addresses in this country two years ago, said: "Woman is +not protected through chivalry, but because the men know that to put women +to the front is national suicide. Woman's part in war is not to wail or +weep, but to furnish the army for the future." Then there is to be an army +for the future! Was there no "national suicide" when over three million +men were "put to the front" in the Rebellion, and more than five hundred +thousand, North and South, laid down their lives, so that through the +veins of this generation runs none of the gallant blood they spilled? +Shall the fathers, and possible fathers, be the only ones to die, if the +mothers and betrothed proclaim themselves no longer desirous of being +protected by such high sacrifice? If women cease to "weep and wail," will +men not cease to be willing to be "furnished by them to the army?" + + "At any cost one good is cheap-- + The soldiers die lest women weep; + And this reward is great and high-- + The women weep that soldiers die." + +Women and soldiers cannot transpose their work. The duty of each to the +Republic is equally "great and high;" but in order to be done it must be +kept distinct as now. + +But all this is subordinate to the real, vital question. In the passages +just quoted, the writers make an error that is made so persistently by all +Suffragists whenever the argument of force is alluded to, that it seems +necessary to repeat the explanation. They assume that this argument, +briefly stated, is: The men do the fighting, therefore they ought to be +rewarded with the ballot. That is _not_ the argument; it is no matter of +reward. The argument, briefly stated, is this: Stability is one of the +highest virtues that any government can possess, and perhaps the most +necessary. It can have no stability if it issues decrees that it cannot +enforce. The only way to avoid such decrees is, to make sure that behind +every law and every policy adopted stands a power so great that no power +in the land can overthrow it. The only such power possible consists of a +majority of the men. Therefore, the only safe thing for the Government to +do is, to carry out the ascertained will of a majority of the men. This +does not always secure ideally good laws, but it does secure stability and +avoids revolution. The majority may blunder; but they are the only power +that can correct their own blunders. + +But war does not call for the only form of public service. There are +others provided for in the National and State constitutions, which are +constant and exacting. They are jury, police and militia duty. When a boy +reaches twenty-one the law says to him, "You are my servant." If a fire +breaks out, the foreman can legally lay his hand on the boy's shoulder, +and say, "Help to put out this conflagration." When the law is broken, the +sheriff can say to him, "Help me make this arrest." When a turn of the +judicial wheel brings out his name, he must serve the state on a jury; if +a riot occurs, he can be called out to quell it; and if a war arises, he +can be drafted to fight against the country's enemies. There is not a +single act of defence to which the voter was subjected by law when the +Constitution was framed, to which he is not subject now, and subject +because he is a voter. The vote is not given to him as a reward for +standing ready to give this service to the state; it is a recognition by +the state that, as he must stand ready to defend it, he should assist in +establishing the laws which it may call upon him to enforce. As he has +assisted to frame them, he cannot refuse to defend them. Woman's only +relation to this defence is that of beneficiary, and therefore her +relation to the laws with which that defence is associated must be one of +advice and not of control. Fortunately for her, advice may prove sometimes +to be control of the most satisfactory kind, a kind that admits of mental +power and does not exact physical. + +The statement is further made by Suffragists that "though woman needs +protection of one man against his whole sex, in pioneer life, in threading +her way through a lonely forest, on the highway, or in the streets of a +metropolis on a dark night, she sometimes needs, too, the protection of +all men against this one. But even if she could be sure, as she is not, of +the ever-present, all-protecting power of one strong arm, that would +be weak indeed compared with the subtle, all-pervading influence of just +and equal laws for all women. Hence woman's need of the ballot, that she +may hold in her own right hand the weapon of self-protection and defence." +The possession of the ballot has not been able to secure for men "the +subtle and all-pervading influence of just and equal laws," and despite +his holding the ballot in his own hand, man has had to hold also a more +apparent weapon if he visit a striker's camp or meddle with an anarchist +riot. Something more tangible than protective influence is needed to make +the public streets of this city safe for women in broad daylight. Again, +they say that "Wisdom would suggest division of labor in peace as well as +in war." Wisdom would have no chance to make such a suggestion, if women +attempted to do the same work as do men, in the same way. There is true +division of labor now, in peace as well as in war. + +Suffragists mention as a final indignity the extension of the suffrage to +the negro. Their protest only serves to suggest another forcible +illustration of the fact that law and the enforcement of law may be +different things. The suffrage is not extended to the negro. The Congress +of the United States voted that it should be so extended; and while the +Government stood behind his vote with its military power, the negro voted. +But no one pretends that he has done so, to any practical extent, since +that time. Unarmed, the negro finds that he cannot enforce his own vote +against the will of white men armed to the teeth. The "all-pervading +influence of just and equal laws" cannot enforce it for him. Would the +women be any better off, if the men chose that they should not exercise +the vote? Who would enforce it? + +This fact and argument show how little arbitration has to do with the +practical decision concerning suffrage. Suffrage writers and speakers harp +upon the thought that arbitration will take the place of force. That +method of settling disputes cannot come too quickly, but it has not come +yet. It has no real bearing on the organization of the state as resting +upon the civil and military service of its citizens. England consented to +arbitrate with the powerful United States, but refused to arbitrate with +defenceless Nicaragua in a far less important matter. Congress has +seriously considered exterminating the remnant of the beautiful herd of +seals that once played in our Northern Pacific waters, because British +subjects have continued, in violation of the Arbitration treaty, to kill +the animals with cruelty. Behind arbitration, as behind all law and order, +military power must always stand and must sometimes be used. One more +proof that the vote is not the real power, but only its insignia, lies in +the fact that legislation has not been able to put an end to strikes and +riots. Laws that forbid them are passed with all due form; but when they +come, as come they do, the reading of the riot act is suspended and the +regiments are ordered to Chicago, or Buffalo, or Brooklyn, or Homestead, +or Cripple Creek, or Cleveland, or the Indian country. The force of those +bodies was not "brutal," it was physical power obeying mental; and unless +mental power can command physical, there is no way in which mental power +can enforce its decrees in government. There are now facing us tremendous +moral issues, which presage tremendous struggles; and a very notable +example of the dangers that would attend woman suffrage is suggested by +them. If women had the power to create a numerical majority when there was +a majority of the law's natural and only defenders against them, they +might soon precipitate a crisis that would lead to bloodshed, which they +would be powerless either to prevent or to allay. Would the majority of +men submit to the minority of men associated with non-combatants? American +history furnishes no reason for supposing that they would. The Dorr War in +Rhode Island is a case in point, in local matters. I am neither an +alarmist nor a believer in war as a panacea; but if we discuss this +subject at all, we must discuss it with facts and not fancies in our +minds. + +Dr. Jacobi again says, in her book: "It may be said, for it has been said, +that the objection to seeing a vote of seven hundred men overcome by a +coalition of three hundred men with eight hundred women, lies in the fact +that the defeated minority knows, if it had a free hand and was allowed to +use fisticuffs, it could pound into a jelly a majority composed so largely +of women. It would feel, therefore, sullen, restive, and justly indignant, +that it should be prohibited from using this power and obliged to submit +to a merely nominal force and supremacy." + +The objection to seeing seven hundred men defeated by a coalition of three +hundred men with eight hundred women, lies in the fact that the defeated +minority knows that it has a free hand, and that nothing less than eight +hundred men could prevent it from using its physical power, were it so +inclined. Only a force and supremacy that was real, and not nominal, could +make it to submit. The rhetorical trick of belittling the matter by +speaking of it as "fisticuffs" will not pass in this discussion. When the +South Carolina negroes on election day looked into the rifle-barrels of +the Red-shirt clubs, it was no matter of fisticuffs. When every statesman +in our country was eagerly seeking a peaceful solution of the Hayes-Tilden +dispute, it was not fisticuffs that they feared. When the Dostie +convention was broken up and its leaders murdered in New Orleans, it was +not by means of fisticuffs. When the Chicago anarchists threw their bomb +into the ranks of the policemen in Haymarket Square, they were not playing +at fisticuffs. When the rail way strikers in Pittsburg stopped the trains, +"killed" the locomotives, and burned the freight, there was no fisticuffs +about it. And when a Southern minority refused to abide by the result of +the election of 1860, and the Northern majority shouldered muskets and +went down and compelled them to, not the most flippant writer would have +thought of calling it fisticuffs. All these are simply readily recalled +instances of the necessity for power in the enforcement of law. + +She goes on to say: "But is it only in such a hypothetical case that a +minority would know it could, if allowed to resort to physical force, +shiver to fragments the majority? The burly brakemen in railroad strikes +would, probably, in a fair hand-to-hand encounter, be much bested over all +the stockholders of the road,--weakened, not only because they included +women in their midst, but also by sedentary habits and predominately +indoor occupations. Why do they not try this way of settling their +difficulties? Why do not the classes in England, who still remain entirely +disfranchised, and with whom rests so much physical strength, drop their +fists into the balance as Brennus did his sword, and cut short the futile, +womanish discussion? The answer is ready in every one's mouth. It is not +that it cannot be done, but that, on the whole, people are all agreed that +it is best it should not be done. It is not that physical force is +respected less, but that mental force is respected more." + +I reply that both these things have been attempted over and over again, +and the agreement of all the wise and good people that it is best that it +should not be done cannot prevent it. Behind the burly brakemen who have +seized the train, and the stockholders to whom it lawfully belongs, there +lies a power greater than all the brakemen and stockholders together. We +call it the power of law. It is, in fact, the power of a sovereign people, +who, having made that law, are able to enforce it against the breakers of +it. It is necessary, in the discussion of this point, to have clearly in +mind the difference between sovereign power and delegated power. When a +member of a stock company attends the annual meeting and casts one vote +for every share that he holds, he is exercising delegated power. The +sovereign people, acting through their representatives in the legislature, +have delegated to the company the power to regulate its affairs in this +way, and guaranteed to each shareholder this privilege. Should a +combination of some of the shareholders attempt to prevent one from +exercising it, he would appeal to the court, and behind the court stands +the power of the people, many times larger than any stock company that +exists. On the other hand, when men go to the polls on election day, they +exercise, not delegated, but sovereign, power. There is no greater power, +above and beyond themselves, to regulate their actions. The enfranchised +classes in England do drop their fists into the balance, and, as a result, +we have seen the extensions of suffrage that marked the years 1832 and +1848, and the reason some classes are still unfranchised is, that the +monarchy that wills their unfranchisement has, as yet, more power at +command than those who would enfranchise them. Mental and moral force is +more respected with every rolling year, because those who respect it have +been able to obtain control of the physical power that can force its +decrees upon those who do not respect it. + +The third count in the indictment is: "Having deprived her of the first +right of a citizen, the elective franchise, thereby leaving her without +representation in the halls of legislation, he has oppressed her on all +sides." As, in securing the exact number of grievances mentioned by the +Fathers, the Mothers were compelled to string out their distresses +somewhat, I will quote the next count in the indictment, and consider +these two together. "After depriving her of all rights as a married woman, +if single, and the owner of property, he has taxed her to support a +government which recognized her only when her property could be made +profitable to it." + +The many-sided oppression, and the deprivation as a married woman, belong +in other chapters. The remaining portions of the two counts may be summed +up under the familiar cry: "No taxation without representation." What did +that just accusation mean when our fathers uttered it in regard to English +tyranny? Did they mean that their property was taxed, and they had no +redress? The phrase originated with Patrick Henry, who read to the +Virginia House of Burgesses the decision gleaned from a study of "Coke +upon Lyttleton," that "Englishmen living in America had all the rights of +Englishmen living in England, the chief of which was, that they could only +be taxed by their own representatives," and on that was founded the +resolution adopted by them that the colonies could not be lawfully taxed +in a body in which they were not represented; for the colonies, as well as +individuals, had no vote in Parliament. They meant that their property +could not be so taxed, and they meant far more. The more that they meant +was embodied by Jefferson in the first draft of the Declaration of +Independence, when he said: "Can any one reason be assigned why a hundred +and sixty thousand _electors_ in the island of Great Britain should give +law to four million in the States of America?" John Hancock meant that and +more when he said: "Burn Boston and make John Hancock a beggar, if the +public good requires it." He was offering his taxed property to defend the +liberties of the four millions against the hundred and sixty thousand +electors. The refusal of the majority to be ruled longer by the minority +was the main motive of determination not to submit. But at that time all +voting was connected with a tax on property, and so was the suffrage +established by these men. And under those property-tax laws women who held +property could vote. It was when taxation ceased to go with +representation, that the women ceased to vote. There is now no connection +between taxation of property and representation. When people were allowed +votes in proportion to the amount of property they held, and could vote in +different counties and States, there was a connection, and that law gave +the rich man more voting power than the poor man. But all aristocratic +qualification was done away with, and the government came to rely solely +on the strength of individual men for its defence, instead of upon men and +women with money enough to raise soldiery. There is a money tax levied on +the property of men and women alike; and in return for the payment of this +tax the property of both men and women is made secure against unlawful +injury. In order to make it secure, the state lays, upon men alone, a +service tax, and with that tax goes representation, or the vote. This +service tax does not fall upon woman, and it cannot be demanded of her; so +it is not true that "Man has taxed her to support a government which +recognizes her only when her property can be made profitable to it." He +has, in return for the money tax, so guarded her property through the +service tax on men that it is of profit to her, which without that guard +it could not be. + +The tax on property is collected from that of minors and unnaturalized +citizens, resident or non-resident, and to all these classes, as well as +to non-voting women, is given the right of petition and legal redress of +whatever sort. The men do not have "equal rights" in regard to public +control of their taxable property, if equal rights means that each man +shall be able to say what shall be done to, or with, or about, the +property on which he pays taxes. The penniless voter can have as much to +say as to whether a railroad shall cross the lands of a millionaire as the +millionaire himself. At every town election the minority are unheeded, so +far as the vote goes, and women with property interests would be no better +off if they secured votes in the only way they can be secured--one voice, +one vote. + +Lydia Maria Child said, in a letter reprinted in the Woman's edition of +"The Rochester Post-Express" in 1896: "I reduce the argument to very +simple elements. I pay taxes for property of my own earning and saving, +and I do not believe in taxation without representation. As for +representation by proxy, that savors too much of the plantation system, +however kind the master may be. I am a human being, and every human being +has a right to a voice in the laws which claim authority to tax him, to +imprison him, or to hang him." + +Not only has every human being in the United States a right to a voice in +the laws that claim authority to tax him, imprison him, or hang him, but +he can exercise that right in all portions of the United States where the +laws that claim this authority are able to enlist sufficient physical +force to execute the authority claimed. Where they have not that power, +neither the voter nor the non-voter has any redress against violence +offered to property or limb or life. Gerrymanders and lynchings in many +parts of our land prove the truth of this. The mastery of men who abide by +and execute law is not a mastery over women for the sake of the spoils of +taxation or the disposal of life, but the mastery over lawlessness +everywhere in order that tax-payers of either sex, native or alien, voters +or non-voters, may be enabled to have that voice in the laws which, as +human beings, is their right. As to the "vote by proxy," if Mrs. Child +could not trust her husband, her son, her brother, or best friend to look +after her interests, she certainly could not trust the carrying out of her +wish, as expressed in her vote, to the men who cast in their ballots by +her side. + +In return for the taxes paid, women get just what men get, namely, roads, +gas, water, schools, etc. The women who have refused to pay their taxes +because they did not vote, have been treated with a leniency that proves +the courtesy of the law-enforcers. They would have made short work with +men who were non-voters, who had tried the same tactics. When a man's vote +is challenged and refused, he does not dream of saying: "I shall not pay +my tax," and the assessor never inquires whether he votes or desires to +vote. The men in the District of Columbia do not find their unfranchised +condition assuaged by the smallness of their account with the assessor. +Neither do they realize or believe that they are governed without their +consent, or exempt from police or military duty. This is a striking proof +that the vote is not a reward for service. They are male American +citizens, over twenty-one years old, and they must contribute service +simply and solely for that reason. This is the price they pay for +established order. + +For, after all, what is government, and what are taxation and +representation? When and how did society consent to be governed? When did +it agree to be taxed and to be represented? The awful story of history, +from the slaying of Abel to the slaughter of half a million men in the War +of Secession, is the answer. It never did agree, it has not yet agreed. +The struggle of civilization is the effort to make it agree. Implanted in +the bosom of man by his Maker is the belief in his individual freedom, of +worship as concerns that Maker, of protection as concerns man. Side by +side with that, was implanted the principle of surrender of a part of that +freedom for just cause. There came a time when men said: "Let us use +arguments instead of force in these decisions," and some form of vote was +instituted. With this they fought and voted by turns, as they set up or +knocked down emperors, kings, popes, and presidents. War has been changed +by progress because man has changed; but main strength to drive home the +truths gained on the moral battlefield is still the power behind the +throne of the National conscience, even in this enlightened land. + +Though the Mothers of the Rebellion did not ask, and apparently did not +think of asking, to share the military duties incident to suffrage, we +must discuss it, if we are to consider the subject thoroughly. To be a +voting citizen, is to be a possible soldier citizen. There is no way of +fulfilling the moral part of the duty, and leaving unfulfilled the +physical, and it is cowardly to attempt it. So the question comes, could +American women be soldiers? They could, for a few in disguise were in +service during the War of Secession. Titled women of Europe are honorary +officers; but this playing soldier is a relic of Middle-Age chivalry. +Women can be seriously destructive; but no one will claim that organized +military duty is really practicable for them. And the suffrage proposition +does not look to anything of the kind. The Suffragists demand equal vote +in sending their fathers, brothers, sons, husbands, and lovers to the +military field of action, and propose to be absolutely exempt from equal +share in the duty that that vote now lays upon male voters. Before the law +there could be no distinction of duty on account of race, sex, or previous +condition of servitude. The "emancipated" woman would be emancipated into +that which the Declaration of Independence expressly called for, "the +right and privilege of the people to bear arms." + +The constitution of Utah says that the State militia is to consist of +"able-bodied males," and I have not yet heard that the women who vote +there have insisted that the word "male" be struck out of that clause of +the Constitution. By no means, every woman expects to be exempt. After +women had succeeded in getting the framers of the constitution of every +State to strike out the word "male," from its voting qualification, they +would expect them to insert the word "male" in mentioning the service +qualification. O Equality, where is thine equal for granting privilege! +Such chivalry, it would seem, is an insult to the power and intelligence +of the women of Utah, who celebrated their "enfranchisement" by a +convention to favor the free coinage of silver, 16 to 1, and whose +behavior on that occasion was, to say the least, boyish. The tax upon time +and strength, and the money loss of citizen service, Suffrage leaders did +not once allude to. They did not, and do not, propose to pay even a double +money tax on account of expected exemption. Little as this would have +availed to meet the actual situation, it would have shown their good will, +and some comprehension of justice, while they talked of an absurd and +intangible "right." + +But, it might be said, "Utah did insert such a clause into her +constitution, and so could other States. It is, after all, common sense +that rules, and men can legislate what they please." The law passed by +Utah, which provided that "male voters must be tax-payers, while female +voters need not be," was decided to be unconstitutional, and this one also +may well be. At the end of Utah's Constitution, as of every other, and of +every bill that is passed, occurs or is understood something like this +sentence from the United States Constitution: "The Congress shall have +power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation." Is it the +"appropriate legislation" that gives to Congress, or to any other body, +the power to enforce the article decided upon by a majority? We know that +it is not. It is the men who can enforce it if it is disobeyed. Every day +we see that some laws are "dead letters," not because the legislation +appropriate to their enforcement was not perfect, but because they are not +enforced. When Mr. Roosevelt became Chairman of the Police Commission +there had been for some time a bill, duly legislated, for the enforcement +of the Sunday closing of liquor saloons in New York city. But the saloons +had not been closed. Mr. Roosevelt summoned the police, and proceeded to +enforce the law. If they had refused, the militia stood behind them. Do +you say, "Very well, if Miss Willard had been Chairman of the +Commissioners she could have done the same." There would have been this +great difference. Mr. Roosevelt himself was as much subject to serve at +the call of the law, as were the policemen. He was not a dictator merely, +he was part and parcel of the strength that he invoked. The reason for +obedience rested on the same ground in each case--service in which each +stood equal. It is a specious form of mistake to suppose that "men can +legislate just what they wish to." They can legislate only what the +majority decrees, and they can legislate effectively only what they have +power to enforce. Had the saloon-keepers refused to obey Miss Willard, not +she, but Mr. Roosevelt and other men would have had to enforce the law. + +It is absurd in itself, and annoying to Suffrage advocates, to talk about +military duty for woman. Her very nature forbids it. So it is, and so it +does, and therefore it is equally absurd to talk about her attempting to +assume duties whose very nature forbids their being done by her. Were +voting only a matter of obtaining the _opinion_ of women on matters that +concern the country, or concern them (and all matters that concern the +country concern them), all precedent gathered from the treatment of +American women by American men goes to prove that no urging would have +been required to secure for them as large a measure of suffrage as was +consistent with their duties and their desires. + +In 1879 an earnest discussion on Woman Suffrage was held in the +legislature of Massachusetts. Four propositions were pending. The first +was that a constitutional amendment should be submitted to the people, +which, if accepted, would decree to women full suffrage. Thomas Wentworth +Higginson, Lucy Stone and William Lloyd Garrison argued the case for the +women. Col. Higginson said that if ability to fight were made the test of +voting "a large proportion of men, especially of professional men, would +be disfranchised. The report of the Surgeon-General of the United States +showed that of the thousand clergymen who volunteered or were drafted +during the war, 945 were declared to be unfit for service. Of the lawyers +who volunteered or were drafted, 650 were rejected, and of the physicians, +745." He added, "You must go down to the mechanics and laborers before you +can find a class of men a majority of whom will fulfil this requirement. +Of the clergymen who preach that woman suffrage is wrong because women can +do no military duty, only one twentieth would themselves be accepted for +such service. There is but one class of men better fitted than mechanics +for military service, and that is the prize-fighting class, and therefore +the constituency which sent John Morrissey to Congress was the only +constituency that ever carried out this idea to the end." Col. Higginson, +who played a gallant part in the Civil War, should have remembered what +poor fighting material the country found in such men as formed the +constituency of John Morrissey. The regiment of Zouaves raised in New York +City by Billy Wilson, the pugilist, was found to be so mischievous, as +well as worthless, that it was shipped to the Dry Tortugas in order to rid +the army of a pest. On the other hand, many of the most gallant as well as +most orderly soldiers came from dry-goods stores and apothecary shops. The +pugilists and roughs are the very ones that are good for nothing as +soldiers; they belong to the class that makes soldiery necessary. + +When Col. Higginson can use such logic, it is no wonder that women have +repeated the argument. The question was not whether, because certain men +who were naturally looked upon by the Government as its defenders, and as +such were called upon to fight, proved physically unable, but whether the +Government had a right, because of its very existence, to call upon those +men, and in case of need, to say to them "Put yourself into physical +condition for this service." If it had such a right, by what law under the +constitution of the United States could Lucy Stone ask to vote and not +expect to have her military fitness inquired into, and be asked to put +herself into physical condition for it? + +Recalling the action of her grandfather, she, better than some other +women, might have realized the necessity of force for government. Her +defiant spirit might well have descended from that ancestor who led four +hundred men in Shays's Rebellion, when, in the State before whose tribunal +she was speaking, he assisted in preventing court sessions, and swelled +the ranks of the rioters who were decrying taxes and calling for fiat +money, in a land that was impoverished and was struggling for a sound +financial standing after a war that had been waged to guarantee the +blessings of freedom to her and to her children. + +As a matter of fact, many of those men whom Col. Higginson referred to as +deemed unfit, did go into immediate training, and "muscular Christianity" +would now present to the Surgeon-General a different showing. It was one +of the surprising things, in a statistical way, to find that city-bred +boys stood the marching and exposure of the Civil War campaigns better +than their country brothers, and that the yard-stick turned into as +effective a sword as the pruning-hook. Garrison, who maintained for so +many years that men should not vote because the government was founded on +force, had the grace not to speak on this phase of the question, but he +said it was cruel that women should be disfranchised and classed with +paupers, idiots, and criminals. Senator Hayes asked him if there was no +"difference between a person who was disfranchised and one who never had +been enfranchised?" and added that "he could see no argument for woman +suffrage in the proposition that certain classes of men were not permitted +to vote." Neither can I. + +The argument for woman suffrage which bases it upon a fancied grouping of +women with the vile and brainless element in the country, appears to me to +be at once the weakest and the meanest of all. When the United States +Government invited its woman citizens to share in making the Columbian +Exposition the most wondrous pageant of any age, they responded from every +town and hamlet by sending of their best. But the national Suffrage +Association, as its official exhibit, gave a picture of the expressive +face of Miss Willard surrounded by ideal heads of a pauper, an idiot, and +a criminal, with a legend recording their belief that it was with these +that American men placed American women. So false a picture must have +taught the thoughtful gazers the opposite lesson from the one intended. It +could have told them that the United States Government had at least +guarded one trust with sacred care. The pauper was excluded from the +ballot as not being worthy to share with freemen the honor of its defence. +The unfortunate was excluded by an inscrutable decree of Providence. The +criminal was excluded as being dangerous to society. The women were exempt +from the ballot because it was for their special safety that a free ballot +was to be exercised, from which the pauper and the criminal must be +excluded. They were the ones who have given to social life its meaning and +its moral, the ones who give to civic life its highest value. + +The authors of the "History" so often referred to, in answer to the claim +that "government needs force behind it, and those who make the laws must +execute them, and a woman could not be a sheriff or policeman," say: +"Woman might not fill these offices as men do, but might far more +effectively guard the morals of society and the sanitary conditions of our +cities." A "moral guard" might be an excellent thing to ward off the +ghosts in a country burying-ground, but would hardly prove effective +against the riot of a Tammany mob on the night of an exciting election. It +is absurd to speak in such fashion of work that is needed every hour. The +crust of our civilization is very thin--how thin, the nation learned +during the campaign just passed. Like a tempest from a clear sky, or one +of their own cyclones, burst an influence from a portion of the West and +South, that would have overturned the Government. Men struck fanatically +and misguidedly at the integrity of the Supreme Court, at the power of the +United States to hold jurisdiction over its own public affairs where they +conflicted with State right, at the currency that gave the country ability +to be honest at home and abroad, at the prosperity and honor of every +citizen. + +Fifteen years ago Suffrage leaders wrote in view of the wonderful advance +of woman: "The broader demand for political rights has not commanded the +thought its merits and dignity should have secured." If this was true, it +had not been for lack of having the demand pressed home upon Congress and +upon every State and Territorial legislature (save in most of the South), +in season and out of season, by every device known to politics, as well as +by a steady and impetuous flow of literature and petitions. How have these +bodies answered this long appeal? It would take too much time and space, +even were it of value, to follow the course of its ups and downs through +all these years, but I mention first the fact that no State in New England +has ever granted constitutional, or even municipal suffrage, although in +some of the old thirteen it could have been done by an act of the +legislature, a constitutional amendment not being needed. These are some +of the figures for the past few years: + +In Vermont, in 1892, the House passed a municipal suffrage bill--yeas 149, +nays 83. In 1894 the House defeated a similar bill by a vote of 108 to +106, and refused reconsideration by a vote of 124 to 96. Thus a favorable +majority of 66 in 1892 was changed to an adverse majority of 28 in 1894. + +In Massachusetts, in 1894, the House passed a municipal suffrage bill by a +vote of 119 to 107. In 1895 it defeated a similar bill, the vote standing, +yeas 97, nays 137, on the question of carrying the bill to a third +reading. In the same year an act was passed permitting all persons +qualified to vote for school committee to express their opinion at the +state election by voting "Yes" or "No," to the question: "Is it expedient +that municipal suffrage be granted to women?" Not one woman in four voted +in favor of the proposition, although if suffrage has any traditionary +power outside of New York State, that power should have been felt in +Massachusetts. + +In Maine, in 1893, the Senate passed a municipal suffrage bill, which was +defeated in the House. In 1895 the House passed a municipal suffrage bill, +which was defeated in the Senate. + +In New Hampshire, in 1895, the House refused a third reading to a +municipal suffrage bill, by a vote of 185 to 108. + +In Connecticut, in 1895, the Senate rejected a House municipal suffrage +bill, while a presidential suffrage bill did not reach a vote. And in +Rhode Island a proposition for a suffrage Constitutional amendment was +referred to the next legislature. + +All these States had granted school suffrage and could grant municipal +suffrage by act of the legislature. In 1893 municipal suffrage bills were +defeated in Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Full +suffrage bills were defeated in Arizona and New Mexico. A township +suffrage bill was defeated in Illinois, a license suffrage bill in +Connecticut, and a village suffrage bill in New York. In that year, also, +the Supreme Courts gave decisions adverse to suffrage laws. In 1893 a bill +was defeated in the United States Senate which proposed to give women the +municipal vote in the Cherokee Outlet. The vote stood 40 to 9. + +In Washington Territory the Legislature passed a law conferring suffrage +on woman in 1883; but this was declared invalid by the courts in 1887, +because its nature was not sufficiently defined in its title. It was re- +enacted in 1888, and again declared invalid by the United States +Territorial Court, on the ground that the Act of Congress which organized +the Territorial legislature did not empower it to extend the suffrage to +women. In 1889 the people, in forming their State constitution, decided +against suffrage. + +In 1894, in the election of November 6, Kansas defeated a constitutional +amendment granting full suffrage, by a majority of 34,827. + +In Iowa, in the same year, the Senate defeated a proposition to submit a +suffrage constitutional amendment to the people. In 1895, bills for full +suffrage and for municipal suffrage again failed to pass, and the question +was submitted to the people in 1896, and resulted in defeat. + +In 1895, also, a township suffrage bill was twice defeated in Illinois. + +In Indiana a proposition to strike the word "male" out of the +Constitution, was not even reported from the committee to which it was +referred. + +In the same year, in Kansas, a bill passed the Senate which proposed to +confer upon nine specified women the full suffrage in response to their +petition. The Senate also passed a bill conferring upon women the vote for +presidential electors; but neither ever reached a vote in the House. In +Michigan, the same year, a proposition to submit a constitutional +amendment was defeated, and a similar resolution in Missouri was also +defeated. Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Washington, Wisconsin, and +South Carolina also defeated propositions to submit the question to the +people in 1895. + +Since January, 1897, Nova Scotia, two Territories, and ten States have +dealt with the suffrage proposal, and all but one of these have rendered +adverse decisions. In Nova Scotia an old bill was reconsidered, and a +larger majority was obtained against it. The territories are Arizona and +Oklahoma. The states in which it was defeated are Iowa, Nevada, Nebraska, +Kansas, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, and California. The last two had +given it heavy defeats but a few months previously. Indiana's Supreme +Court handed down an adverse decision. The favorable state was Washington, +where the Legislature voted to submit an amendment to the people next +year. + +Certainly, the question cannot be said not to have received the attention +that any vital subject might have claimed, and the answers show that, as +comprehension of the meaning of democracy has grown, and as liberty of +thought and action for men and women has increased, the proposition to +cast an unequal burden, not upon a disfranchised class, but upon an +unfranchised sex which in every class has its own correlative and equal +duties, rights, and privileges, is losing ground. + +But, it is answered, look at the suffrage triumphs in Utah State and +Idaho. Let us look at them more closely. It is my opinion that a few more +such triumphs would end in its utter overthrow. Utah introduced suffrage +by a simple legislative act. Woman suffrage was abolished in Utah +Territory by Federal statute, because it was found to be sustaining the +Mormon Church and the institution of polygamy. The Suffragists profess to +hold in abhorrence churchly and polygamous rule. Here was an opportunity +for them to say to the Government: "This is not what we meant by suffrage, +nor what we desire suffrage to be used for. We approve this real +disfranchisement." Did they do anything of the kind? Far from it. In 1876 +they passed the following: "Resolved, That, the right of suffrage being +vested in the women of Utah by their constitutional and lawful +enfranchisement, and by six years of use, we denounce the proposition +about to be again presented to Congress for the disfranchisement of the +women of that Territory, as an outrage on the freedom of thousands of +legal voters and a gross innovation of vested rights; we demand the +abolition of the system of numbering the ballots, in order that the women +may be thoroughly free to vote as they choose, without supervision or +dictation; and that the chair appoint a committee of three persons, with +power to add to their number, to memorialize Congress, and otherwise watch +over the rights of women of Utah in this regard during the next +twelvemonth." + +In 1878 the report of Utah's governor contained the following: "All voters +must be over twenty-one years of age, and must have resided in the +Territory six months, and in the precinct one month. If males, they must +be native born or naturalized citizens of the United States, and tax- +payers in the Territory. A female voter need not be a tax-payer, and if +the wife, widow or daughter of a native or naturalized citizen, need not +herself be native or naturalized!" In 1892 the Utah Commission made to the +Secretary of the Interior a report which gave it as their opinion that the +sanction of the Church had been withdrawn only temporarily in regard to +polygamous practices, and would be restored after a political purpose had +been served. That same year a party was formed calling itself the "Liberal +Party," and it carried Salt Lake City in the first election in which +National party lines were drawn. This was one plank of its platform: +"Anxious as every Liberal is to see every difference adjusted, as anxious +as they are to exercise the utmost privileges accorded to the most favored +Americans, they remember what first caused clashing here was the presence +and control of an unyielding Theocracy and an _imperium in imperio_, and +they cannot fail to note that at the last conference of this theocratic +organization the old assumptions were all renewed." They therefore +deprecated immediate Statehood. The bill granting it passed Congress in +1894. The Republican, Democratic and Populist parties in Utah all favored +Statehood, and at the election following the Constitutional Convention +these parties all inserted planks favoring free coinage of silver 16 to 1, +demanding the return by government of "real estate belonging to the Mormon +Church," and favoring the retention of woman suffrage. + +The women of Utah were greatly in evidence during the late presidential +election. Several of them were candidates for office; but it is a +significant fact that, even in Utah, and even on the Republico-Demo- +Populist ticket, the women's vote ran far behind that for the men. "The +Salt Lake Herald" for November 13, 1896, records the fact that "Woman +suffrage gave Utah to Bryan," and in another place it says: "The women on +both tickets polled a small number of votes." Martha Cannon, who was +elected State Senator, obtained 8,167 votes. The men on the same ticket, +elected to the same office, polled, respectively, 9,875, 9,355, 9,244, +9,036 votes. Mrs. Cannon was on the free silver ticket against her +husband, who was nominated for the same office on the Republican ticket. +Of the other candidates for the senatorships on that ticket, four were men +and one a woman. The men's vote stood: 6,405, 6,197, 6,129, 5,961. The +woman's was 4,692. The only woman put up for State Representative ran +2,000 votes behind her ticket. One man only, "the ex-dog-catcher" of the +county, fell below her. The woman's vote was 4,879, the dog-catcher's +4,325. + +I copy from the "Salt Lake Herald" a few sentences taken from an interview +with Mrs. Cannon, State Senator elect. When asked if she was a strong +believer in woman suffrage, she answered: "Of course I am. It will help +women, and it will purify politics. Women are better than men. Slaves are +always better than their masters." "Do you refer to polygamy?" was asked. +"Indeed I do not," she answered. "I believe in polygamy. My father and +mother were Mormons, and I am a Mormon.... A plural wife isn't half as +much of a slave as a single wife. If her husband has four wives, she has +three weeks of freedom every single month.... Of course it is all at an +end now, but I think the women of Utah think, with me, that we were better +off in polygamy.... Sixty per cent. of the voters of this State are women. +We control the State.... What am I going to do with my children while I am +making the laws for the State? The same thing I have done with them when I +have been practicing medicine. They have been left to themselves a good +deal.... Some day there will be a law compelling people to have no more +than a certain amount of children, and the mothers of the land can live as +they ought to live." This is the character and opinion presented by the +highest State official that woman suffrage has as yet given to the United +States. Comment upon it seems unnecessary, so far as it would be needed to +express the disgust of the majority of American women at such sentiments +and such a situation. But has any Suffrage speaker or meeting denounced +them, or deprecated the result of the election? I have heard of none. The +National Suffrage Convention, which was held in Iowa, in January, 1897, +had the newly-elected Populist women as guests of honor, and held a +jubilation over the two new Suffrage States--Utah and Idaho. Idaho has +elected a Populist woman or two. The vote in that State in favor of the +gold standard and that against woman suffrage tally within forty-two +votes. + +The instinctive alliance of the Woman Suffrage movement with the uncertain +and dangerous elements in our political life is well exemplified by the +campaign in California in connection with the late presidential election. +Mrs. Barclay Hazard, who was almost the sole woman to express publicly the +opposition which the majority of women felt, to the Suffrage idea, has +given me the following clear account of the conditions and result. She +says: "If the advocates of Woman Suffrage give a really frank and truthful +answer to the question, 'What caused the defeat of the movement in the +late campaign in California?' they must reply, 'Public sentiment was +against it.' In all fairness, there is no other reason. Let us consider +the conditions under which the campaign was carried on. In the first +place, the Suffragists were most fortunate in choosing a time when the +whole country, as well as the State of California, was torn by a question +of such vital importance to continued life and well-being that all other +matters were in danger of going by default. + +"Second: They were extremely well organized and had command of a campaign +fund of no mean magnitude, which enabled them to keep in the field such +able and experienced agitators as Miss Susan B. Anthony and the Rev. Anna +Shaw, to say nothing of numerous lesser lights. + +"Third: There was absolutely no organized opposition to the movement. The +women who disapproved were as a rule entirely unaccustomed to public +speaking and were averse to coming forward in any way. They remonstrated +in private but would not express their views openly. + +"Fourth: Last but by no means least, our Suffrage friends may be said to +have had the press of the State with them. The 'Los Angeles Times' (the +most influential paper in the southern part of the State) cannot be said +to have aided the movement, neither did it actively antagonize it beyond +admitting to its columns occasionally letters from the 'Antis.' Yet for +this small opposition I heard an ardent advocate propose that the +Suffragists should boycott the paper! + +"Now, was ever a cause fought for under conditions more conducive to +success? 'Every thing,' to use a current slang phrase, 'seemed to be going +their way.' They fully expected to win, and those of us most opposed to +their ideas in private sadly conceded their probable victory. The result +when it came was all the more a surprise and blow to the Suffragists and a +welcome reassurance to the friends of stability and conservatism. The +figures show us that while the stronghold of Populism, the South, went for +the measure, Alameda County turned the scale. One must know California to +realize what that means. Alameda County contains the city of Oakland, +which is admittedly the most respectable and moral city in California; it +also contains the town of Berkeley, which is the home of the University of +California with its large faculty of clever men, most of them from the +East. Yes, it was here in the stronghold of morals and intellect that the +Woman Suffrage movement in California met its fate." + +A question constantly and properly asked is: "How does woman suffrage work +where it is exercised?" So far as I can obtain information, where it has +worked at all, it has been detrimental to women and to the State. + +Of Wyoming there is much testimony to the fact that during the Territorial +period (1868-'89) women did little voting, and played no appreciable part +in political life. Populism and Free Coinage had begun to play a prominent +part in the whole section when Wyoming was admitted to Statehood in 1890. +At the election that followed its admission there was a fusion that +resulted in the election of a Populist Governor, and such was the riotous +state of feeling that the Governor was obliged to enter the State House +through a broken window. A year later this same Governor, in his annual +message, proclaimed woman suffrage to be a notable success. As a proof, he +pointed to the fact that there were no criminals in the State, and that +the jails were empty. A little research into official documents showed +that there might be other reasons, because the criminals and those guilty +of small offences were at that time lodged in other States, and a year +later, when the authorities took possession of Laramie Prison, given by +the Government, and brought home their evil-doers, they outnumbered, in +proportion to population, those of New Mexico, which certainly should be a +fair place for comparison. + +For a time, women served on juries, and there is testimony to the fact +that in many respects they served well. But the practice of calling them +was soon suspended, and never has been renewed. The only public office of +consequence held by them was bestowed by the Republicans but a year or two +ago, when Miss Reel was made State Superintendent of Schools. In our late +crucial election, Wyoming and its woman suffrage gave their voices for +Populism and Free Coinage. The scale hung in the balance. Why, if woman is +a greater political power for good than man, did she not turn it for the +principles which the State had held were best? The true test of the +working of woman suffrage lies in a study of the legislation connected +with it, and this will be presented under its appropriate heading. + +The scenes of shameful defiance of law and order in the midst of which +Colorado admitted woman to the ballot are of more recent occurrence and +are fresh in memory. Populism never has played in Colorado the part that +it has in Kansas, but "anything for free coinage" has been the motto, and +in abiding by it the State brought in, and afterward turned out, Gov. +Waite, of disgraceful memory. Again, last year, there was Republican- +Democratic-Populist fusion to beat the gold standard, and much Populist +rule was again the result. One good authority writes me that women "have +introduced an element of order and respectability upon election day that +was never observed before." He says he thinks that, "as a whole, the +people are very much satisfied with woman suffrage and believe that it has +resulted beneficially in so far as it has made politics a little better +than they were." Another says that "the influence of woman in politics did +not prevent the last Republican caucus of Arapahoe Co. from being the most +disgraceful in the history of the State. The Convention, though presided +over by a woman, was completely in the power of the 'gang,' and sent to +Pueblo the most unworthy delegate ever sent." This gentleman also says he +has "heard numbers of intelligent women state that they were sorry the +ballot had ever been given to them." Orderliness at the ordinary elections +is expected here, without calling upon women to act as "moral police" at +the polls. So quiet are they that it has been found practicable to place +coffee-stands in charge of women near some of the booths, when women have +requested it in the hope of preventing drunkenness. A friend said to me +some time ago: "You know that I have been a Suffragist. I am most +thoroughly converted. I have been three months in Colorado. It is enough +to cure any one." + +A Denver correspondent of the "Chicago Record," says: "The women of +Colorado took no active part in the recent campaign, but they did not +forget to vote.... The experiment of having women in the State Assembly +did not prove satisfactory, at the last session, and it was quite +generally conceded that there would be no more women sent to that body; +but the Populists won in this county, and on their ticket were three woman +candidates, so the coming session will again have three women as members." + +Of course the effect of suffrage in new States is not a criterion of its +effect elsewhere. And whether the effect could be shown to be good or bad, +the main argument would not be touched. The interesting thing to trace is +the affiliations of the movement. + + +In addition to those that have been mentioned we recall the fact that in +our recent political campaign, four parties that nominated candidates for +President and Vice-President of the United States, had in their +conventions women as delegates and members of committees. They were the +Populist, the Free-Silver, the Prohibition, and the Socialist-Labor +parties. The woman-suffragists of the Prohibition party left the rock- +ribbed champion that had put a Suffrage plank in every platform for years, +in order to go with Free Silver and Populism of the most extravagant type. +These parties also had Suffrage planks. Altgeld and Debs, Coxey and +Tillman were only men, but Mary Ellen Lease furnished to the campaign that +strain of exalted fanaticism that at once points out woman's glory and +woman's danger. + +The Suffrage indictment we have been considering is summed up as follows: +"Now, in view of this entire disfranchisement of one half of the people of +this country, their social and religious degradation--in view of the +unjust laws above mentioned, and because women do feel themselves +aggrieved, oppressed, and fraudulently deprived of their most sacred +rights, we insist that they have immediate admission to all the rights and +privileges which belong to them as citizens of the United States." + +Dr. Jacobi in "Common Sense" says: "To this very day the survivors of that +group of pioneer women have an abstract way of stating their claim which, +to modern ears, sounds somewhat archaic." + +She is not archaic when she says: "During the long ages of class rule, +which are just beginning to cease, only one form of sovereignty has been +assigned to all men--that, namely, over all women. Upon these feeble and +inferior companions all men were permitted to avenge the indignities they +suffered from so many men to whom they were forced to submit." + +Mary A. Livermore is not archaic when in the "North American Review" for +February, 1896, she says: "Her physical weakness, and not alone her mental +inferiority, has made her the subject of man. Toiling patiently for him, +cheerfully sharing with him all his perils and hardships, the +unappreciated mother of his children, she has been bought and sold, petted +and tortured, according to the whims of her brutal owner, the victim +everywhere of pillage, lust, war, and servitude. And this statement +includes all races and peoples of the earth from the date of their +historic existence." + +I deny the truthfulness of the archaic accusation, and denounce as an +absurdity the bombastic demand. I resent, as an unwarranted insult to +woman and to man, the still more bitter modern representations of woman's +condition and woman's rights in this world, and especially in this +Republic. They are simply false. + +Archaic or modern, the dictums of the Suffrage pioneers have been repeated +at their every convention. Overlaid with sentiment as much of the Suffrage +idea has become, contradictory as it is in argument and in statement of +fact, blended as are its sophisms with the real progress of the time, +sincere and well-meaning as are many of its advocates, sex antagonism is +the corner-stone of its foundation. The Woman's Rebellion is a more +complex affair than the American Revolution. The latter was the natural +result of the earnest and united protest, by a large majority of men and +women of the American Colonies, against the tyranny of a monarchical +government. The former was a protest by a small band of women and men +against what they claimed to be universal tyranny. They attacked law and +custom all along the line, and the weapon forever kept in order for the +service was the demand for woman's possession of the ballot. Where she +does not possess it, and has not asked it, her influence is mightiest. The +relation of woman to the Republic is a study worthy the most exalted +patriotism. In it is involved the broader question of her relation to man +and to the destiny of the race. When told of her son's heroism in crossing +the Delaware, Mary Washington said, "George will not forget the lessons I +have taught him." Through the mother's devoted faith and the son's +obedient power, the foundations were laid of a government whose sole +reliance must still be on woman's inspiration and man's willing strength. +These are evidently God's instruments for our Nation's upbuilding. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +WOMAN SUFFRAGE AND PHILANTHROPY. + + +The extinction of human bondage, more perhaps than any other one event, +has emphasized the progress of the century about to close. Our generation +has witnessed the destruction of serfdom in Russia, and of slavery in +Brazil and the United States. Freedom was gained; but of the enlightened +rulers through whom it was won, two were assassinated and one was exiled +to die. Sacrifice is still the price of liberty. + +Much stress has been laid by Suffragists upon the supposed fact that the +Woman-suffrage movement grew up as a logical conclusion from the Anti- +slavery movement. It grew out of it in the sense of having been born in +its midst; but I believe that the truth will be found to be that it was +the most prolific source of the dissensions that marred that noble cause, +and was identified with the small element that adopted wild notions or +used the notoriety gained by opposition to slavery in order to propagate +mischief. The conduct of those who later entered the Suffrage movement +hindered the public work of women from the time of organized effort for +the slave until slavery fell pierced to death amid the horrors of a +fratricidal war. I will take a brief survey of the Anti-slavery struggle +as it blended itself with the doctrines of those abolitionists who were +the earliest and staunchest friends of the Suffrage movement, and compare +it with the statements and claims of the women themselves. + +I first refer to the "Life of James G. Birney," by his son, General +William Birney. James G. Birney was an early friend of Henry B. Stanton, +husband of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and with him helped to lay the +foundations of the Free-Soil Party, and later the Republican Party. +General Birney says of his father: "In his visit to New York and New +England, in May and June, 1837, Mr. Birney's chief object had been to +restore harmony among Anti-slavery leaders on doctrines and measures, and +especially to check a tendency, already marked in Massachusetts, to burden +the cause with irrelevant reforms, real or supposed. With this view he had +attended the New England Anti-slavery Convention held at Boston, May 30 to +June 2 inclusive, accepted the position of one of its vice-presidents, and +acted as a member of its committee on business. Rev. Henry C. Wright, the +leader of the No-Human-Government, Woman's-Rights, and Moral-Reform +factions, was a member of the Convention, but received no appointment on +any committee. On June 23, in the 'Liberator' [his newspaper], Mr. +Garrison denounced human governments. July 4, he spoke at Providence, as +if approvingly, of the overthrow of the Nation, the dismemberment of the +Union, and the dashing in pieces of the Church. July 15, an association, +of Congregational ministers issued a 'pastoral letter' against the new +doctrines. August 2, five clergymen, claiming to represent nine tenths of +the abolitionists of Massachusetts, published an 'appeal' which was +directed more especially against the course of the 'Liberator.' August 3, +the abolitionists of Andover Theological Seminary issued a similar appeal. +Among the complaints were some against 'speculations that lead inevitably +to disorganization, anarchy, unsettling the domestic economy, removing the +landmarks of society, and unhinging the machinery of government.' A new +Anti-slavery society in Bangor passed the following resolution: 'That, +while we admit the right of full and free discussion of all subjects, yet, +in our judgment, individuals rejecting the authority of civil and parental +governments ought not to be employed as agents and lecturers in promoting +the cause of emancipation.'" + +In his Autobiography, speaking of this time, Frederick Douglass says: "I +believe my first offence against our Anti-slavery Israel was committed +during these Syracuse meetings. It was in this wise: Our general agent, +John A. Collins, had recently returned from England full of communistic +ideas, which ideas would do away with individual property and have all +things in common. He had arranged a corps of speakers of his communistic +persuasion, consisting of John O. Wattles, Nathaniel Whiting, and John +Orvis, to follow our Anti-slavery conventions, and while our meeting was +in progress in Syracuse Mr. Collins came in with his new friends and +doctrines and proposed to adjourn our Anti-slavery discussions and take up +the subject of communism. To this I ventured to object. I held that it was +imposing an additional burden of unpopularity on our cause, and an act of +bad faith with the people who paid the salary of Mr. Collins and were +responsible for these hundred conventions. Strange to say, my course in +this matter did not meet the approval of Mrs. Maria W. Chapman, an +influential member of the board of managers of the Massachusetts Anti- +slavery society, and called out a sharp reprimand from her, for +insubordination to my superiors." John O. Wattles labored hard to +introduce Woman Suffrage into the State Constitution of Kansas. Mr. +Collins worked for it in California in the early days. Mrs. Chapman, who +had embraced Mr. Collins's doctrines, was one of the first pillars of the +Suffrage movement. + +Later, when Mr. Douglass determined to establish a newspaper and become +its editor, he was obliged to leave New England, "for the sake of peace," +he says, as his Anti-slavery friends opposed it, saying that it was absurd +to think of a wood-sawyer offering himself as an editor. In Rochester, N. +Y., he established "The North Star." He says, "I was then a faithful +disciple of William L. Garrison, and fully committed to his doctrine +touching the pro-slavery character of the Constitution of the United +States, also the non-voting principle, of which he was the known and +distinguished advocate. With him, I held it to be the first duty of the +non-slaveholding States to dissolve the union with the slaveholding +States, and hence my cry, like his, was 'No union with slaveholders.' +After a time, a careful reconsideration of the subject convinced me that +there was no necessity for 'dissolving the union between the northern and +southern States;' that to seek this dissolution was no part of my duty as +an abolitionist; that to abstain from voting was to refuse to exercise a +legitimate and powerful means for abolishing slavery; and that the +Constitution of the United States not only contained no guarantees in +favor of slavery, but, on the contrary, was in its letter and spirit an +Anti-slavery instrument, demanding the abolition of slavery as a condition +of its own existence as the supreme law of the land. This radical change +in my opinions produced a corresponding change in my action. Those who +could not see any honest reasons for changing their views, as I had done, +could not easily see any such reasons for my change, and the common +punishment of apostates was mine. ... Among friends who had been devoted +to my cause were Isaac and Amy Post, William and Mary Hallowell, Asa and +Hulda Anthony, and indeed all the committee of the Western New York Anti- +Slavery Society. They held festivals and fairs to raise money, and +assisted me in every other possible way to keep my paper in circulation +while I was a non-voting abolitionist, but withdrew from me when I became +a voting abolitionist." + +The Posts, the Hallowells, and the Anthonys were among the first to attach +themselves to the Suffrage movement. + +The Grimké sisters, who were intensely interested in the abolition +agitation, followed Garrison to the extreme, and adopted the socialistic +ideas with which his wing became to a large extent identified. They were +also early in the Suffrage cause. In August, 1837, Whittier wrote to them +as follows: "I am anxious to hold a long conversation with you on the +subject of war, human government, and church and family government. The +more I reflect upon the subject the more difficulty I find, and the more +decidedly am I of opinion that we ought to hold all these matters aloof +from the cause of abolition. Our good friend, H. C. Wright, with the best +intentions in the world, is doing great injury by a different course. He +is making the Anti-slavery party responsible in a great degree for his, to +say the least, startling opinions.... But let him keep them distinct from +the cause of emancipation. To employ an agent who devotes half his time +and talents to the propagation of 'no-human or no-family government' +doctrines in connection, _intimate_ connection, with the doctrines of +abolition, is a fraud upon the patrons of the cause. Brother Garrison +errs, I think, in this respect. He takes the 'no-church and no-government' +ground." + +Mr. Garrison wrote to the American Anti-slavery Society of his desire to +crush the "dissenters," and Maria W. Chapman wrote: "Why will they think +they can cut away from Garrison without becoming an abomination? ... If +this defection should drink the cup and end all, we of Massachusetts will +turn and abolish them as readily as we would the colonization society." +Henry B. Stanton wrote to William Goodell: "I am glad to see that you have +criticised Brother H. C. Wright. I have just returned from a few months' +tour in eastern Massachusetts, and he has done immense hurt there." A. A. +Phelps, agent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery society, wrote: "I write +you this in great grief, and yet I feel constrained to do it. The cause of +abolition here was never in so dangerous and critical a position before. +Mutual jealousies on the part of the laity and clergy are rampant; indeed, +so much so that, let a clerical brother do what he will, it is resolved as +a matter of course into a sinister motive! ... Of this stamp, more than +ever before, is friend Garrison. And Mrs. Chapman remarked to me the other +day that she sometimes doubted which needed abolition most, slavery or the +black-hearted ministry. For this cause alone we are on the brink of a +general split in our ranks.... And as if to make a bad matter worse, +Garrison insists on yoking perfectionism, no-governmentism, and woman- +preaching with abolition, as part and parcel of the same lump." + +In 1840, Emerson, in his Amory Hall lecture, said: "The Church or +religious party is falling from the Church nominal, and is appearing in +Temperance and non-resistant societies, in movements of abolitionists and +socialists, and in very significant assemblies called Sabbath and Bible +conventions, composed of ultraists, of seekers, of all the soul and +soldiery of dissent, and meeting to call in question the authority of the +Sabbath, of the priesthood, of the Church. In these movements nothing was +more remarkable than the discontent they begot in the movers.... They +defied each other like a congress of kings, each of whom had a realm to +rule, and a way of his own that made concert unprofitable." + +These ideas blossomed, in due course of time, into Socialistic +communities. There was a distinctly Anti-slavery one at Hopedale, +Massachusetts. The founder, Adin Ballou, published a tract setting forth +the objects of the community, from which I make the following extracts: +"No precise theological dogmas, ordinances, or ceremonies are prescribed +or prohibited. In such matters all the members are free, with mutual love +and toleration, to follow their own highest convictions of truth and +religious duty, answerable only to the great Head of the Church Universal. +It enjoins total abstinence from all God-contemning words and deeds; all +unchastity; all intoxicating beverages; all oath-taking; all slave-holding +and pro-slavery compromises; all war and preparations for war; all capital +and other vindictive punishments; all insurrectionary, seditious, +mobocratic, and personal violence against any government, society, family, +or individual; all voluntary participation in any anti-Christian +government, under promise of unqualified support, whether by doing +military service, commencing actions at law, holding office, voting, +petitioning for penal laws, or asking public interference for protection +which can only be given by such force. It is the seedling of the true +democratic and social Republic, wherein neither caste, color, sex, nor age +stands prescribed. It is a moral-suasion temperance society on the +teetotal basis. It is a moral-power Anti-slavery society, radical and +without compromise. It is a peace society on the only impregnable +foundation, that of Christian non-resistance. It is a sound theoretical +and practical Woman's Rights Association." Among other Suffragists, Abby +Kelly Foster was resident at Hopedale. Another community, at Northampton, +was sometimes described as "Nothingarian." + +Of the state of things at this time in the Anti-slavery societies, General +Birney says, "The no-government men made up in activity what they lacked +in numbers. While refusing for themselves to vote at the ballot-box, they +voted in conventions and formed coalitions with women who wished to vote +at the ballot-box." Mr. Henry B. Stanton wrote to William Goodell: "An +effort was made at the annual meeting of the Massachusetts society, which +adjourned today, to make its annual report and its action subservient to +the non-resistant movement, and through the votes of the women of Lynn and +Boston it succeeded." A little later, January, 1839, Mr. Stanton wrote +again to Mr. Goodell, as follows: "I have taken the liberty to show your +letter to brothers Phelps, George Allen, George Russell, O. Scott, N. +Colver, and a large number of others, and they highly approve its +sentiments. They, with you, are fully of the opinion that it is high time +to take a firm stand against the no-government doctrine. They are far from +regarding it merely as a humbug." John A. Collins, the Anti-slavery agent +referred to, founded a community at Skaneateles, N. Y., based upon the +following dictums: A disbelief in any special revelation of God to Man, in +any form of worship, in any special regard for the Sabbath, in any church, +disbelief in all governments based on physical force, because they are +"organized bands of banditti," whose authority is to be disregarded, a +disbelief in voting, in petitioning, in doing military duty, paying +personal or property taxes, serving on juries, testifying in "so-called" +courts of justice. A disbelief in any individual property. A belief that +as marriage is designed for the happiness of the parties to it, when such +parties have outlived their affections, the sooner the separation takes +place the better, and that such separation shall not be a barrier to their +again uniting with any one. The community lived two and a half years, and +broke up with a debt of ten thousand dollars. John O. Wattles, who was +associated with Collins in the disturbance referred to by Frederick +Douglass, founded a community in Logan County, Ohio, which was called "The +Prairie Home." They had no laws, no government, no opinions, no +principles, no form of society, no test of admission. They professed to +take for their creed the dictum "Do as you would be done by." The +association broke up in anarchy within a few months. Mr. Collins and Mr. +Wattles were always promoters of the Woman-Suffrage movement. + +Mr. Garrison said: "We cannot acknowledge allegiance to any human +government. We can allow no appeal to patriotism to revenge any national +insult or injury." Again he said: "If a nation has no right to defend +itself against foreign enemies, no individual possesses that right in his +own case.... As every human government is upheld by physical strength, and +its laws are enforced at the point of the bayonet, we cannot hold office. +We therefore exclude ourselves from every legislative and judicial body, +and repudiate all human politics, worldly honors, and stations of +authority." + +Ralph Waldo Emerson says: "They withdraw themselves from the common labors +and competitions of the market and the caucus.... They are striking work, +and calling out for something worthy to do.... They are not good citizens, +not good members of society; unwilling to bear their part of the public +burdens. They do not even like to vote. They filled the world with long +beards and long words. They began in words, and ended in words." + +Charles Sumner said: "An omnibus-load of Boston abolitionists has done +more harm to the Anti-slavery cause than all its enemies." + +Angelina Grimké, writing at this time to Mr. Weld, said: "What wouldst +thou think of the 'Liberator' abandoning abolitionism as a primary object, +and becoming the vehicle of all these grand principles?" + +In his published volume "Anti-slavery Days," James Freeman Clarke says of +the first Garrison Anti-slavery society: "There was no such excitement to +be had anywhere else as at these meetings. There was a little of +everything going on in them. Sometimes crazy people would come in and +insist on taking up the time; sometimes mobs would interrupt the smooth +tenor of their way; but amid all disturbance each meeting gave us an +interesting and impressive hour. I think that some of the Garrisonian +orators had the keenest tongues ever given to man. Stephen S. Foster and +Henry C. Wright, for example, said the sharpest things that were ever +uttered. Their belief was, that people were asleep, and the only thing to +be done was to rouse them; and to do this it was necessary to cut deep and +spare not. The more angry people were made, the better." Again, in the +same volume, he says, after describing the political Anti-slavery party: +"While these political anti-slavery movements were going on, the old +abolitionists, under the lead of Garrison, Phillips, and others, had +decided to oppose all voting and all political efforts under the +Constitution. They adopted as their motto, 'No union with slaveholders.' +Their hope for abolishing slavery was in inducing the North to dissolve +the Union. Edmund Quincy said the Union was 'a confederacy with crime,' +that 'the experiment of a great nation with popular institutions had +signally failed,' that 'the Republic was not a model but a warning to the +nations;' that 'the whole people must be either slaveholders or slaves;' +that the only escape for 'the slave from his bondage was over the ruins of +the American Church and the American State:' and it was the unalterable +purpose of the Garrisonians to labor for the dissolution of the Union." +Freeman Clarke goes on to say: "Wendell Phillips said on one occasion, +'Thank God, I am not a citizen of the United States.' As late as 1861 he +declared the Union a failure, and argued for the dissolution of the Union +as 'the best possible method of abolishing slavery.' If the North had +agreed to disunion and had followed the advice of Phillips, 'To build a +bridge of gold to take the slave States out of the Union,' slavery would +probably be still existing in all the Southern States. At all events, it +was not abolished by those who wished for disunion, but by those who were +determined at all hazards and by every sacrifice to maintain the Union." + +On April 8, 1839, Henry B. Stanton wrote to William Goodell as follows: +"At this very time, and mainly, too, in that part of the country where +political action has been most successful, and whence, from its promise of +soon being triumphant, great encouragement was derived by abolitionists +everywhere, a sect has arisen in our midst whose members regard it as of +religious obligation in no case to exercise the elective franchise. This +persuasion is part and parcel of the tenet which it is believed they have +embraced, that as Christians have the precepts of the gospel of Christ, +and the spirit of God to guide them, all human governments, as necessarily +including the idea of force to secure obedience, are not only superfluous, +but unlawful encroachments on the Divine government as ascertained from +the sources above mentioned. Therefore they refuse to do anything +voluntarily that would be considered as acknowledging the lawful existence +of human governments. Denying to civil governments the right to use force, +they easily deduce that family governments have no such right. They carry +out the 'non-resistant' theory. To the first ruffian who would demand our +purse or oust us from our house, they are to be unconditionally +surrendered unless moral suasion be found sufficient to induce him to +desist from his purpose. Our wives, our daughters, our sisters, our +mothers, we are to see set upon by the most brutal, without any effort on +our part except argument to defend them! And even they themselves are +forbidden to use in defence of their purity such powers as God has endowed +them with for its protection, if resistance should be attended with injury +or destruction to the assailant. In short, the 'no-government' doctrines, +as they are believed now to be embraced, seem to strike at the root of the +social structure, and tend, so far as I am able to judge of their +tendency, to throw society into entire confusion and to renew, under the +sanction of religion, scenes of anarchy and license that have generally +hitherto been the offspring of the rankest infidelity and irreligion." + +Again, he wrote: "The non-government doctrine, stripped of its disguise, +is worse than Fanny-Wrightism, and, under a Gospel garb, it is Fanny- +Wrightism with a white frock on. It goes to the utter overthrow of all +order, yea, of all purity. When carried out, it goes not only for a +community of goods, but a community of wives. Strange that such an infidel +theory should find votaries in New England!" + +The editors of the "History of Woman Suffrage" say in their opening +chapter: "Among the immediate causes that led to the demand for the equal +political rights of women, in this country, we may note these: First, the +discussion in several of the State legislatures of the property rights of +married women; Second, the great educational work that was accomplished by +the able lectures of Frances Wright, on political, religious, and social +questions. Ernestine L. Rose, following in her wake, equally liberal in +her religious opinions, and equally well-informed on the science of +government, helped to deepen and perpetuate the impression Frances Wright +had made on the minds of unprejudiced hearers. Third, and above all other +causes of the Woman-Suffrage movement, was the Anti-slavery struggle in +this country." By referring to the columns of the secular and religious +press of that period, we find that most of the respectable and +representative opinion of the country was "prejudiced." Halls and assembly +rooms in all the cities were closed against Fanny Wright, not only because +her doctrines were absolutely infidel and materialistic, but because they +were deemed subversive of law, order, and decency. The better portion of +society in the United States was of one mind in its estimate of "The +Pioneer Woman in the Cause of Woman's Eights," as she was called. In the +columns of "The Free Inquirer," a newspaper which she and Robert Dale Owen +established and edited in New York City in 1829, she attacked religion in +every form, marriage, the family, and the State. She pretended to no basis +of scientific investigation, but in a brilliant flood of words endeavored +to sweep away faith in the Bible, the home, the Republic, in favor of +negation, communism, free love. I have place for but a single quotation +from one of her "Fables," published in the "Free Inquirer." It will show +the drift of her work in one direction: + +"'Is my errand sped, and am I a master on earth?' said the infernal king +(Pluto). 'Even as I promised,' said the Fury. 'Love hath forsaken the +earth. Under the form of religion I aroused the fears and commanded the +submission of mortals; and our imp now reigns on earth in the place of +Love, under the form of Hymen.' Pluto smiled grimly, and smote his thigh +in triumph. 'Well conceited, well executed, daughter of Night. Our empire +shall not lack recruits, now that innocence is exchanged for superstition, +and the true affection of congenial and confiding hearts is replaced by +mock ceremonies and compulsory oaths!'" + +Frances Wright had founded, in 1825, at Nashoba, Tennessee, a community +that had for its professed aim the elevation and education of the Southern +negroes. In describing her object, Miss Wright said: "No difference will +be made in the schools between the white children and the children of +color, whether in education or in any other advantage. This establishment +is founded on the principle of community of property and labor: these +fellow-creatures, that is, the blacks, admitted here, requiting these +services by services equal or greater, by filling occupations which their +habits render easy, and which to their guides and assistants might be +difficult or unpleasing." This form of helotism flourished but three years +on American soil. It is doubly interesting as containing the germs of +communism and anti-slavery that blended themselves in the beginnings of a +movement for suffrage which was directly inspired by Frances Wright. + +The editors of the "Suffrage History" say that "above all other causes of +the suffrage movement, was the Anti-slavery struggle in this country." +They add: "In the early Anti-slavery conventions, the broad principles of +human rights were so exhaustively discussed, justice, liberty, and +equality so clearly taught, that the women who crowded to listen, readily +learned the lesson of freedom for themselves, and early began to take part +in the debates and business affairs of all associations. And before the +public were aroused to the dangerous innovation, women were speaking in +crowded promiscuous assemblies. The clergy opposed to the Abolition +movement first took alarm, and issued a pastoral letter, warning their +congregations against the influence of such women. The clergy identified +with Anti-slavery associations took alarm also, and the initiative steps +to silence women, and to deprive them of the right to vote in the business +meetings, were soon taken. This action culminated in a division in the +Anti-slavery Association. The question of woman's right to speak, vote, +and serve on committee, not only precipitated the division in the ranks of +the American Anti-slavery society, in 1840, but it disturbed the peace of +the World's Anti-slavery Convention, held that same year in London. In +summoning the friends of the slave from all parts of the two hemispheres +to meet in London, John Bull never dreamed that woman, too, would answer +to his call. Imagine, then, the commotion in the conservative Anti-slavery +circles in England when it was known that half a dozen of those terrible +women who had spoken to promiscuous assemblies, voted on men and measures, +prayed and petitioned against slavery, women who had been mobbed, +ridiculed by the press, and denounced by the pulpit, who had been the +cause of setting all the American Abolitionists by the ears, and split +their ranks asunder, were on their way to England." + +These quarrels, stirred up through the unseemly conduct of men and women, +as we have seen, they were willing to precipitate upon a convention in a +foreign land, a convention, too, which had declared its desire not to +receive them as delegates. Upon the calling of the roll, the meeting was +thrown into excitement and confusion on a subject foreign to that which +brought them together. Wendell Phillips eloquently pleaded for the +admission of the women. The English officers, while showing their personal +courtesy, begged to remind them that the Queen, and many ladies in various +stations, were represented by male delegates, and that to admit the +American ladies would be to cast a slight upon their own active members, +many of whom were present. During the heated discussion Mr. James Fuller +said: "One friend has stated that this question should have been settled +on the other side of the Atlantic. Why, it _was_ so settled, and in favor +of the women." Mr. James G. Birney answered: "The right of the women to +sit and act in all respects as men in our Anti-slavery associations was so +decided in the Society in May, 1839, but not by a large majority, which +majority was swelled by the votes of the women themselves. I have just +received a letter from a gentleman in New York (Lewis Tappan) +communicating the fact that the persistence of the friends of promiscuous +female representation in pressing that practice on the American Anti- +Slavery society, at its annual meeting on the 12th of last month, had +caused such disagreement that he, and others who viewed the subject as he +did, were deliberating the question of seceding from the old +organization." + +Lewis Tappan, a founder of the American Missionary Society, was intimately +connected with his brother Arthur in all anti-slavery work. Arthur was a +founder of the American Tract Society, and of Oberlin College, and a +benefactor of Lane Seminary. He established "The Emancipator," and was +president of the American Anti-Slavery Society until compelled, with his +brother Lewis, to withdraw on account of the conduct of the no-government +men and women, and take nearly all the Society with him. + +When the vote was taken in the London meeting the women were excluded on +the ground that "it being contrary to English usage, it would subject them +to ridicule and prejudice their cause." + +George Thompson then said: "I hope, as this question is now decided, that +Mr. Phillips will give us the assurance that we shall proceed with one +heart and one mind." Mr. Phillips replied, "I have no doubt of it. There +is no unpleasant feeling on our part. All we asked was an expression of +opinion; we shall now act with the utmost cordiality." + +But Mr. Phillips had reckoned without his host and hostesses. Mr. Garrison +had not been present at the discussion, but he arrived at this juncture +and took his seat with the excluded delegates. During a twelve-days' +discussion of the momentous cause that had called them together, which he +had professed especially to champion, he took not the slightest part. Such +was his mistaken zeal that he was willing so to stultify himself, and the +women were willing to applaud him in so doing. The spirit that looked upon +the American Constitution as "a covenant with death and an agreement with +hell" was there. The spirit that defied all authority and could confound +liberty of conscience with the formal acts of courtesy between man and +man, was there. The spirit that took for its motto "You cannot shut up +discord" was there. And out of these combined elements, trained in the +school of thought that had treated as tyranny the religious and civil +liberty of the United States, grew directly the Woman-Suffrage movement. +Elizabeth Cady Stanton was not a delegate. The delegates were Abby Kelly, +Esther Moore, and Lucretia Mott. Mrs. Stanton was a bride, and in the +immediate party on this, their wedding trip, was Mr. Birney, her husband's +special friend. The writers of the "History" say: "As the ladies were not +allowed to speak in the Convention, they kept up a brisk fire, morning, +noon, and night, on the unfortunate gentlemen who were domiciled at the +same house." Mrs. Stanton had not been identified with any of these +abolition quarrels; but she records that now she took her full share of +the "firing," notwithstanding her husband's "gentle nudges under the +table" and Mr. Birney's ominous frowns across it. In the volume entitled +"Woman's Work in America," in a contribution called "Woman in the State," +written by Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, she says: "The leaders in the new +[suffrage] movement, Lucretia Mott and Mrs. Stanton, with their husbands," +did thus and so in originating it. Lucretia Mott's husband was with her as +a silent member of the conventions, but Elizabeth Cady Stanton's husband +is conspicuous for his absence from every list of officers or attendants, +from the inception of the Suffrage movement until his death. He may have +been in perfect sympathy with his wife; but since the names of all the men +already mentioned in connection with the mad "no-civil, no-family, no- +personal government" movement, do appear, and his does not, it is +impossible not to challenge Mrs. Livermore's statement. The last reference +to him in the "History" was as voting on the occasion of the London +meeting, in favor of the women's admission to the World's Convention. No +mention is made of any speech, or of reasons given. Certain it is, that +while Mr. Garrison became the conspicuous standard-bearer for the Woman's +Rights movement, Mr. Stanton became one of the conspicuous bearers of the +standard of the Free Soil and Republican parties, which included some of +Anti-slavery's staunchest friends, who were denounced by Garrison as its +foes. + +Thus it seems evident to me that the Woman-Suffrage movement no more grew +logically out of the great discussions on human bondage which began with +Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Hamilton, and John Jay, and ended +with Sumner, Seward, and Lincoln, than the communes of this country grew +out of the utterances of the Fathers based on the declaration that "All +men are created equal, and are endowed with certain inalienable rights, +among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." + +It was among those whose mistaken zeal and wild conduct were most +mischievous, that the Suffrage sentiment gathered head. Their lack of +judgment in defying the opinions of their own sex, as well as of the +other, their wrapt forgetfulness of proprieties, which incited mobs and +proved a fine tool for the frenzy of so-called social reformers, brought +contempt upon womanhood as well as upon the cause they advocated. Women, +in the churches and out, were the strength of the Anti-slavery movement; +but not these women. As to the notable meeting in London, had the +delegates been the highest and largest minded and most cultured of their +sex, and had their cause been the noblest, they and it would have been +dishonored by the method of its presentation. American women of to-day +would no more applaud such conduct than did those of fifty years ago. +Women have won lasting public favor and place, while Suffrage has won an +uneasy footing by unenviable methods. + +This survey enables us to understand what otherwise would seem most +strange, how the women of the Suffrage movement, in claiming the right of +suffrage, ignored the duties and powers based upon and connected with it-- +those that formed the defence which made possible any such nation as ours. +Added to the extreme Quaker doctrine of peace-at-any-price, was the +fanatical notion of the sinfulness of all war, all use of physical force, +and a cool assumption that opinion was law. Mrs. Maria Chapman read, at +one of the early Woman's-Rights conventions, a string of verses that +reveals the absurdity of the situation. It was in reply to "A Clerical +Appeal," issued by the Rev. Nehemiah Adams, whose "South-Side View of +Slavery" received more Anti-slavery attention than it deserved, for it +expressed only his own fantastic ideas. In the "Appeal" he maintains that +women should paint in water colors only, not in oil. Mrs. Chapman says: + + "Our patriot fathers, of eloquent fame, + Waged war against tangible forms; + Aye, _their_ foes were men--and if ours were the same, + We might speedily quiet their storms; + But, ah! their descendants enjoy not such bliss, + The assumptions of Britain were nothing to this. + + "Could we but array all our force in the field, + We'd teach these usurpers of power + That their bodily safety demands they should yield, + And in presence of womanhood cower; + But alas! for our tethered and impotent state, + Chained by notions of knighthood--we can but debate." + + * * * * * + + "Oh! shade of the prophet Mahomet, arise! + Place woman again in her 'sphere,' + And teach that her soul was not born for the skies, + But to flutter a brief moment here. + This doctrine of Jesus, as preached up by Paul, + If embraced in its spirit will ruin us all." + +Mention of Mrs. Chapman recalls her attitude toward Frederick Douglass and +the further fact that he became an advocate of Suffrage. In his "Life and +Times" he says: "I could not meet her [Mrs. Stanton's] arguments except +with the shallow plea of 'custom,' 'natural division of duties,' +'indelicacy of woman's taking part in politics,' 'the common talk of +woman's sphere,' and the like, all of which that able woman brushed away +by those arguments which no man has yet successfully refuted." Mr. +Douglass might have called to mind the fact, to the recognition of which +he had been so thoroughly converted, and which he set forth on page 460 of +his book, when he wrote: "I insisted that the liberties of the American +people were dependent upon the ballot-box, the jury-box, and the +cartridge-box." He forgot that Mrs. Stanton, in defiance of those social +laws that had weight with him, was asking to use the first, to use +partially the second, and to ignore the third, on which both of the others +depend for continuance. + +The "History" is dedicated to Harriet Martineau (among other women) as one +who influenced the starting of the Suffrage movement. Turning to Miss +Martineau's "Society in America," published in 1837, I find the following +in her account of the Anti-slavery movement in the United States: "The +progress of the Abolition question within three years throughout the whole +of the rural districts of the North, is a far stronger testimony to the +virtue of the nation than the noisy clamor of a portion of the +slaveholders of the South, and the merchant aristocracy of the North, and +the silence of the clergy, against it. The nation must not be judged of by +that portion whose worldly interests are involved in the maintenance of +the anomaly; nor yet by the eight hundred flourishing Abolition societies +of the North, with all the supporters they have in unassociated +individuals. If it be found that the five Abolitionists who first met in a +little chamber five years ago, to measure their moral strength against +this national enormity, have become a host beneath whose assaults the +vicious institution is rocking to its foundations, it is time that slavery +was ceasing to be a national reproach." + +An observer who could be made to believe that these five Abolitionists had +really accomplished more toward the overthrow of slavery than eight +hundred flourishing Abolition societies and their outside supporters, and +that the great body of clergymen were silent, because they did not adopt +the methods of the five who set themselves against church and state, shows +a credulity that leads one to question the information and the conclusions +on which her judgment of the relation of American women to the Republic +were based. + +As a proof that when women entered into public work in a womanly way they +found support from the church and the Abolitionists, we may point to +perhaps the first organized charitable and industrial work done among +women in this country. In 1834 Mrs. Charles Hawking, of New York City, had +convened in the Third Free Church, corner of Houston and Thompson streets, +a meeting which resulted in the immediate formation of "The Moral Reform +Society." Clergymen who were in sympathy with the movement addressed the +meeting. "The Female Guardian Society" was founded by them a year later, +and a newspaper was established to present its claims. The officers were +women. They visited the Tombs, and held weekly prayer-meetings. They +secured the legislation necessary to bring about the separation of men and +women in the city prisons, and the appointment of matrons for the women. +In 1853 they procured an enactment "whereby dissipated and vicious +parents, by habitually neglecting due care and provision for their +offspring, shall forfeit their natural claim to them, and whereby such +children shall be removed from them and placed under better influences +till the claim of the parents shall be re-established by continued +sobriety, industry, and general good conduct." They secured the passage of +the Truant Act, and the appointment of Truant Officers. Mr. Lewis Tappan +was not only the auditor for the organization, but gave effective help by +suggestions that led to the establishment of the first Home for the +Friendless, of which there are now seven in charge of the society. In +1854, Industrial schools were added. Cooking, housekeeping, kindergarten, +and fresh-air work developed rapidly. There are now twelve industrial +schools, where six thousand children are taught. The report of the first +semi-annual meeting, held in Utica, N. Y., is in quaint contrast to the +reports of the first Suffrage meetings. They say: "The utmost harmony and +union of feeling have characterized all the proceedings, and as we looked +around and saw the intelligence and piety and moral worth that was +assembled there, and listened to the discussion of subjects of practical +importance, while every one was manifestly seeking to know and do her +duty, we could not but feel that the most determined opposer of 'women's +meetings' would have found nothing to censure had he been present. There +has been no frivolity, no fanaticism, no disorder. We are sure that not a +wife or mother was there who was not at least as well disposed and +prepared to discharge her relative duties as she would have been if she +had kept at home." + +Upon the great cause of Temperance, also, the Woman-Suffrage movement +early laid a blighting hand. As will be remembered, total abstinence was +one of the doctrines to which many of the no-government, common-property, +men and women were pledged. Western and Central New York has been the +birthplace of some of the wildest and most destructive movements that our +social life has witnessed. If the year 1848, which saw the beginnings of +the Woman-Suffrage movement, was wonderful for revolutions and +insurrections the world over, the years that preceded it were remarkable, +especially in this country and this State, for some of the maddest +vagaries that ever have been known here. There and then arose the Shaker +excitement, so fantastic that only now and then was the outside world +permitted to know what was being done. Then and there Fourierism found its +most fruitful field, and of the dozen or more communities that were +started, several united in forming, near Rochester, an Industrial Union. +John Collins started a number of vague branches of what the Fourierites +called the "no-God, no-government, no-marriage, no-money, no-meat, no- +salt, no-pepper" system of community. Here John H. Noyes, under the guise +of a new heaven on an old earth, established his foul community at Oneida. +There and then the Millerite madness sent whole congregations into the +cemeteries, in white gowns, to await the sounding of the trump of Gabriel. +There and then arose the great spiritualistic movement that began in Wayne +County with the Fox family, became famous as the Rochester Knockings, and +blossomed into communities in which "Free Love" grew out of "Individual +Sovereignty." Then and there, in Wayne County, Joseph Smith pretended that +the Angel Maroni had shown him, the Book of Mormon. Many of these +movements were in sympathy with Woman Suffrage, and workers in them early +found their way into its ranks. + +In the midst of the Anti-slavery excitement, secret temperance +organizations were formed among the women in New York State, known as the +"Daughters of Temperance." "Finding," as they said, "that there was no law +nor gospel in the land," they became a law unto themselves, and visited +saloons, where they broke windows, glasses, and bottles, and threw kegs +and barrels of liquor into the streets. A few were arrested, but they were +soon discharged. As time went on, these secret organizations began to form +themselves into regular bodies, and in January, 1852, they assembled their +delegates at Albany to claim admission to the State Temperance +organization, with no invitation or authority but their own. Susan B. +Anthony was the first speaker, and when the convention decided not to hear +her, it was announced that they would withdraw and hold a meeting where +"men and women would be equal," which they accordingly did. The movement +continued, until, three months later, Miss Anthony called "The New York +State Temperance Convention," of which Mrs. Stanton was elected President. +Among the resolutions that she introduced in her opening speech, were +these: that "no woman remain in the relation of wife to a confirmed +drunkard;" that the State should be petitioned so to "modify its laws +affecting marriage and the custody of children, that the drunkard shall +have no claims on either wife or child;" that "no liquor should be used +for culinary purposes;" and that "as charity begins at home, let us +withdraw from all associations for sending the gospel to the heathen +across the ocean, for the education of young men for the ministry, for the +building up of a theological aristocracy and gorgeous temples to the +unknown God, and devote ourselves to the poor and suffering about us. Let +us feed and clothe the naked and hungry, gather children into schools, and +provide reading-rooms and decent homes for young men and women thrown +alone upon the world." The organization of "The Woman's New York State +Temperance Society" was formed, and Mrs. Stanton was elected its +President. She issued an appeal to the women of the State, and sent a +letter to the Convention at Albany which "was so radical, that its friends +feared to read it," but Susan B. Anthony finally did so. They elected as +delegates to the "Men's New York State Temperance Convention," to be held +in Syracuse in June, Susan B. Anthony, Mrs. Amelia Bloomer, and Gerrit +Smith. When they arrived they were met by the Rev. Samuel J. May, who told +them that the men were shocked at the idea of admitting them, and said +that he was commissioned to beg them to withdraw. They decided to present +their credentials, and of course the stormy scene which they had invited +followed their action. This scene was repeated in every part of the State, +the agitators figuring upon their own platforms as martyrs to the noble +causes of Anti-slavery, Temperance, and Woman's Rights. A single quotation +from a letter of Miss Anthony's, written at this time to the league, shows +that then, as now, the radical woman workers for Prohibition were nothing +if not political. She says: "And it is for woman now, in the present +presidential campaign, to say to her father, husband, or brother, 'If you +vote for any candidate for any office whatever, who is not pledged to +total abstinence and the Maine law, we shall hold you alike guilty with +the rum-seller.'" + +In January, 1853, a great mass-meeting was held in Albany of all the State +temperance organizations. The Woman's society met in a Baptist church, +which was crowded at every session. Miss Anthony presided. Twenty-eight +thousand women had signed petitions for prohibitory legislation. The rules +of the House were suspended, and the women were invited to present them at +the speaker's desk. They were then invited to New York, and, in +Metropolitan Hall, addressed a large audience, as well as in the Broadway +Tabernacle and Knickerbocker Hall, Brooklyn. In the next two months they +made successful tours of many cities of the State. But, like Mr. Garrison, +and Stephen Foster, and H. C. Wright, the women thought that if they were +not attacking and being attacked there could be no "progress" or "reform." +They demanded divorce for drunkenness, they denounced wine at private +tables, and called on the women to leave all church organizations where +"clergymen and bishops, liquor-dealers, and wine-bibbers, were dignified +and honored as deacons and elders." They denounced the church for its +"apathy," and the clergy for their "hostility to the public action of +women," and they soon began to turn the kindly feeling that was +endeavoring to work with them into enmity, and were of course denounced in +their turn. + +The Society decided to invite men into their organization, but not to +allow them to hold office or to vote. This they did for a year, after +which men were admitted to full membership. The first annual meeting of +the Woman's State Temperance Society was held in Rochester, June 1, 1853, +Mrs. Stanton presiding, and the attendance was larger than they had had at +any time. In the course of the meetings a heated debate on the subject of +divorce took place. Mrs. Stanton and Lucy Stone took the ground that it +was "not only woman's right, but her duty, to withdraw from all such +unholy relations," and Mrs. Nichols and Antoinette Brown opposed them. + +The men were admitted to this convention, and, to use the words of the +women, "it was the policy of these worldly-wise men to restrict the debate +on Temperance to such narrow limits as to disturb none of the existing +conditions of society." This farce in reform soon came to an end, and the +following is the epitaph pronounced over it by its founders: "The society, +with its guns silenced on the popular foes, lingered a year or two, and +was heard of no more." On May 12, the friends of Temperance met in Dr. +Spring's Old Brick Church, New York City. A motion was made that all +gentlemen present be admitted as delegates. Dr. Trall, of New York, moved +an amendment, that the words "and ladies" be added, as there were +delegates present from the "Woman's State Temperance Society." The motion +was carried, and the credentials were received. A motion was then made +that Susan B. Anthony be added to the business committee, and all was in +an uproar at once. "Mayor Barstow twice asked that another chairman be +appointed, as he would not preside over a meeting where woman's rights was +introduced, or women were allowed to speak." Some of the gentlemen present +said that "the ladies were there expressly to disturb." The ministers +present, like the laymen, were divided in opinion in regard to the +admission of the delegates; but the credentials were withdrawn, and in due +time the bearers of them withdrew also. The writers of the "History" say: +"Most of the liberal men and women now withdrew from all temperance +organizations, leaving the movement in the hands of time-serving priests +and politicians, who, being in the majority, effectually blocked the +progress of the reform for the time--destroying, as they did, the +enthusiasm of the women in trying to press it as a political measure." +Comparing this work with their Anti-slavery campaign, they say: "When +Garrison's forces had been thoroughly sifted, and only the picked men and +women remained, he soon made political parties and church organizations +feel the power of his burning words." It was the men and women from whom +he and his were sifted who spoke the burning words that ended in burning +deeds for the extinction of slavery; and thus it was with Temperance. +There remained after the "sifting" many societies, of one of which William +E. Dodge and President Mark Hopkins were chief officers, and John B. Gough +was principal orator. + +The writers of the "History" further say, in regard to the death of their +organization: "Henceforward women took no active part in temperance until +the Ohio Crusade revived them all over the nation, and gathered the +scattered forces into the Woman's National Christian Temperance Union, of +which Frances E. Willard is President." This is a mistake, for women were +very active in connection with Temperance societies of which men were +officers, and in organizations of their own, before and after the W. C. T. +U. was founded. The history of that great body furnishes another proof of +the injurious effect of the Suffrage movement upon the cause of +Temperance. In 1872 a political Temperance party was formed in Columbus, +Ohio, which, four years later, at Cleveland, became the Prohibition Party. +From the first, this party inserted a plank in its platform favoring +universal suffrage, and mentioning especially the extension of suffrage to +women. The W. C. T. U. was founded as a non-denominational and non- +partisan body, and was divided and sub-divided into committees, each +having charge of a distinct branch of philanthropic work, which was by no +means confined solely to Temperance measures. This has given the body +great working strength, and its efforts are well known. Everything except +its Suffrage labor has had rich reward. I was present at the Metropolitan +Opera House in New York City (in 1886, I think), and witnessed with +amazement the high-handed fashion in which an organization whose +constitution forbade political coalition was handed over to the +Prohibition Party, pledged to give aid and comfort. The division and +bitter feeling that resulted were a serious injury to the cause of +Temperance. In her contribution to the volume entitled "Woman's Work in +America," Miss Willard says: "After ten years' experience, the women of +this Crusade became convinced that until the people of this country divide +at the ballot-box, on the foregoing [Temperance] issue, America can never +be nationally delivered from the dram-shop. They therefore publicly +announced their devotion to the Prohibition Party, and promised to lend it +their influence, which, with the exception of a very small minority, they +have since most sedulously done." Writing in "The Outlook" for June 27, +1896, Lady Henry Somerset says, in closing a sketch of Frances Willard: +"The Temperance cause, in spite of the gigantic strides it has made of +late years toward success, is still relegated to the shadowy land of +unpopular and supposedly impracticable and visionary reform." + +The Temperance cause is not relegated to a shadowy land, but has just +taken, in many places, notably in New York State, another gigantic stride +toward success. Prohibition has proved less faithful to the women than +Miss Willard said the women had proved to it; for, in the struggle to +survive the attack upon its life made by Populism in 1896, it refused to +re-insert the Woman-Suffrage plank in its platform. Mrs. Helen Gougar +bolted with the Populists. Mrs. Boole, of New York, in behalf of the +W.C.T.U., moved the re-insertion in the platform of the Woman-Suffrage +plank, which had been stricken out when it was decided to make prohibition +the only issue. Amidst great confusion, Mrs. Boole was obliged to withdraw +her motion, and when she changed her claim from that for a plank in the +platform to one for a resolution which declared the convention to be in +favor of Woman Suffrage, it was accepted by the Committee on Resolutions, +and adopted with only a few dissenting votes. In view of the fact that the +party has had a Suffrage plank since 1872, when it began to be, this does +seem like a turning of the back rather than of the cold shoulder. When to +its motto "No sectarianism in religion, no sectionalism in politics," the +W. C. T. U. added "No sex in citizenship," it fastened itself to a +principle that has not progressed. Its Temperance work "for God and home +and native land" has gone on; but the political alliance and effort have +alike proved futile. A striking proof of this fact is seen in the reports +of the non-political sections of the W. C. T. U. itself. Police matrons +have been placed through their petitions, and educational and +philanthropic work that is directly in the line of doing away with the +liquor evil, and is worthy of high praise, has been accomplished. Miss +Willard, in her article already alluded to, reports that "under the +leadership of Mrs. Mary H. Hunt, the W. C. T. U. has secured laws +requiring scientific temperance instruction in thirty States." The number +is now forty-two, and I cannot help believing that Mrs. Hunt must feel +more hopeful of the favorable results to temperance of well-directed +effort to influence those who have the power to execute the laws they +pass, than Miss Willard has reason to feel for its success through +prohibition and the forceless votes of women whose power in philanthropy +is fully recognized and cheerfully acknowledged. Women talk as if the +solid vote of their sex would be cast in favor of temperance. The census +of 1890 reveals the fact that there were in that year three times as many +woman hotel-keepers as in 1870, and seven times as many saloon-keepers and +bar-tenders. + +Again, in the Nation's greatest crisis, Woman Suffrage showed itself to be +the antipodes of woman's progress. Those of us whose once sable locks are +now silvered are content to wear the badge of years, when we remember that +we were permitted to live long enough ago to have felt the expansion of +soul, the fervor of loyal love, the melting power of an overwhelming +universal sorrow and a united joy, which filled the mighty days during a +war for freedom and for the life of the Republic. Most of the women of the +land were working with a devotion that spared neither strength nor life. +What was the Woman-Suffrage Association doing? I answer in their own +words. In their "History," they say: "While the most of women never +philosophize on the principles that underlie national existence, there +were those in our late war who understood the political significance of +the struggle: the 'irrepressible conflict between freedom and slavery; +between national and State rights.' They saw that to provide lint, +bandages, and supplies for the army, while the war was not conducted on a +wise policy, was labor in vain; and while many organizations, active, +vigilant, self-sacrificing, were multiplied to look after the material +wants of the army, these few formed themselves into a National Loyal +League to teach sound principles of government, and to impress on the +nation's conscience, that 'freedom to the slaves was the only way to +victory.'" They further say: "Accustomed as most women had been to works +of charity, to the relief of outward suffering, it was difficult to rouse +their enthusiasm for an idea, to persuade them to labor for a principle. +They clamored for practical work, something for their hands to do; for +fairs, sewing societies to raise money for soldiers' families, for +tableaux, readings, theatricals, anything but conventions to discuss +principles and to circulate petitions for emancipation. They could not see +that the best service they could render the army was to suppress the +rebellion, and that the most effective way to accomplish that was to +transform the slaves into soldiers. The Woman's Loyal League voiced the +solemn lessons of the war; universal suffrage, and universal amnesty." + +The Woman's Loyal League "voiced" the fact that the professional agitators +of the Suffrage movement were not patriots. Again they filled the land +with words, while all the others of their sex were blazoning the page of +their country's history with deeds of the noblest self-sacrifice, the most +gentle daring. When we remember with what infinite patience the great +emancipator was waiting for the hour when in his wisdom he discerned that +he could "best save the Union by emancipating all the slaves," we realize +what added sorrow may have been pressed upon his heart by the foolish +petitions that the League were rolling up by the hundred thousand and +sending to a Congress that was powerless to heed them if it would. +Statesmen and Generals were staggered by the stupendous task of guiding a +great people and saving the Union in the most powerful rebellion ever +known; but these few women knew from the beginning that "the war was not +conducted on a wise policy," and that to provide for the army was "labor +in vain." They joined the great body of fault-finders and talkers, and +lifted not a finger in practical work. And they are the women who would +fain vote for and become America's rulers! The "other women," who were +narrow-minded enough to prepare stores and raise money for the army, and +do such concrete work as nursing in the hospital and on the field, had +been busy for nearly two years when the Suffrage women bestirred +themselves in their own way. In March, 1863, they issued the following +appeal to the "Loyal Women of the Nation," which I quote at length because +it is an excellent example of their methods, which "began in words and +ended in words:" + +"In this crisis of our country's destiny, it is the duty of every citizen +to consider the peculiar blessings of a republican form of government, and +decide what sacrifices of wealth and life are demanded for its defence and +preservation. The policy of the war, our whole future life, depends on a +clearly-defined idea of the end proposed, and the immense advantages to be +secured to ourselves and all mankind by its accomplishment. No mere party +or sectional cry, no technicalities of constitution or military law, no +mottoes of craft or policy, are big enough to touch the great heart of a +nation in the midst of revolution. A grand idea, such as freedom or +justice, is needful to kindle and sustain the fires of a high enthusiasm. +At this hour the best word and work of every man and woman are +imperatively demanded. To man, by common consent, is assigned the forum, +camp, and field. What is woman's legitimate work, and how she may best +accomplish it, is worthy of our earnest counsel with one another. We have +heard many complaints of the lack of enthusiasm among Northern women; but, +when a mother lays her son on the altar of her country, she asks an object +equal to the sacrifice. In nursing the sick and wounded, knitting socks, +scraping lint and making jellies, the bravest and best may weary if the +thoughts mount not in faith to something beyond and above it all. Work is +worship only when a noble purpose fills the soul. Woman is equally +interested and responsible with man in the final settlement of this +problem of self-government; therefore let none stand idle spectators now. +When every hour is big with destiny, and each delay but complicates our +difficulties, it is high time for the daughters of the Revolution, in +solemn council, to unseal the last will and testament of the Fathers--lay +hold of their birthright of freedom, and keep it a sacred trust for all +coming generations. To this end we ask the Loyal Women of the Nation to +meet in the church of the Puritans (Dr. Cheever's), New York, on Thursday, +the 14th of May next." This was signed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and +Susan B. Anthony, in behalf of the Woman's Central Committee. + +Having set forth their belief that by common consent the forum, the camp, +and the field were assigned to men, these women secured a forum from which +to promulgate advice and direction to the men who were indeed allowed +possession of the camp and the field. After a speech, in which, among +other things, Miss Anthony said: "Instead of suppressing the real cause of +the war, it should have been proclaimed, not only by the people, but by +the President, Congress, Cabinet, and every military commander," she +presented resolutions, which included this: + +"Resolved: that there can never be a true peace in this Republic until all +the civil and political rights of all citizens of African descent and all +women are practically established." + +The reading of the resolutions was followed by one of the long, +acrimonious debates with which those who read the reports of their +conventions are familiar. They resented it bitterly when Mrs. Hoyt, of +Wisconsin, said: "The women of the North were invited here to meet in +convention, not to hold a Temperance meeting, not to hold an Anti-slavery +meeting, not to hold a Woman's Rights convention, but to consult as to the +best practical way for the advancement of the loyal cause. We have a great +many very flourishing Loyal Leagues throughout the West, and we have kept +them sacred from Anti-slavery, Woman's Rights, Temperance, and everything +else, good though they may be. In our League we have several objects in +view. The first is, retrenchment in household expenses, to the end that +the material resources of the Government may be, so far as possible, +applied to the entire and thorough vindication of its authority. Second, +to strengthen the loyal sentiment of the people at home, and instil a +deeper love of the National flag. The third and most important object is +to write to the soldiers in the field, thus reaching nearly every private +in the army, to encourage and stimulate him in the way that ladies know +how to do." After expressions of strong resentment, those who had called +the convention returned to their generalizing in regard to the duty and +influence of woman, and to denunciations of the Government for its conduct +of the war. The resolutions which had called forth the strictures were +accepted, and Miss Anthony announced that "The resolution recommending +practical work was not yet prepared." It was written at a business meeting +following, and read thus: + +"Resolved, that we, loyal women of the nation, do hereby pledge ourselves +one to another, in a Loyal League, to give support to the Government in so +far as it makes the war a war for freedom." + +If the Government of the United States had received no more practical +pledges, from no more loyal hearts than these, there would have been +little reward for the patriotic devotion that laid down life in defence of +the Union. A sentiment that was often expressed by the Suffragist was that +as woman had no vote she could not properly be called upon to be loyal. +The "practical" work finally accomplished was the gathering of another +monster petition, in which they told President Lincoln that "Northern +power and loyalty can never be measured until the purpose of the war be +liberty to man." To the close of the war they did nothing but sign such +petitions. + +I turn to Dr. Brockett's great book, "Woman in the Civil War," and I find +recorded the names and the work of four hundred and eighty-four women who +gave invaluable and honorable special service, some of them even to the +sacrifice of life itself; and of all this number, only a half dozen are +known in Suffrage annals. + +Cure by ballot has been the one and only remedy suggested by Suffrage +conventions for all the ills, real or imaginary, that are endured by +women. As long ago as 1854, in a convention in Philadelphia, they uttered +the same sentiment. In commenting upon Mrs. Jane G. Swisshelm's book, +"Half a Century," they say: "While ever and anon during the last forty +years Mrs. Swisshelm has seized some of these dilettante literary women +with her metaphysical tweezers, and held them up to scorn for their +ridicule of the Woman Suffrage conventions, yet in her own recently +published work, in her mature years, she vouchsafes no words of approval +for those who have inaugurated the greatest movement of the centuries. ... +It is quite evident from her last pronunciamento that she has no just +appreciation of the importance and dignity of our demand for justice and +equality. A soldier without a leg is a fact so much more readily +understood than all women without ballots, and his loss so much more +readily comprehended and supplied, that we can hardly blame any one for +doing the work of the hour, rather than struggling a lifetime for an idea. +Hence it is not a matter of surprise that most women are more readily +enlisted in the suppression of evils in the concrete, than in advocating +the principles that underlie them in the abstract, and thus ultimately +choosing the broader and more lasting work." + +In her "Reminiscences," contributed to the "History," Mrs. Emily Collins +says: "From 1858 to 1869 my home was in Rochester, N.Y. There, by brief +newspaper articles and in other ways, I sought to influence public +sentiment in favor of this fundamental reform. In 1868 a society was +organized there for the reformation of abandoned women. At one of its +meetings I endeavored to show how futile all their efforts would be while +women, by the laws of the land, were made a subject class." + +This was typical action. Thus it was in Anti-slavery, thus in Temperance, +thus in the Civil War, and thus it has been with general reforms. What +Suffragists have deemed to be an abstract "right" has prevented them from +taking active part in any efforts put forth to end a concrete wrong. As +time goes on, this spirit becomes more injurious, because progress is +carrying philanthropy into higher fields of moral action, and in so doing +is carrying it away from and above the plane where rests the ballot-box. +While Suffrage effort is directed toward keeping all issues in the +political arena, the trend of legislation is to take them out of politics. +By the public votes of men and the private votes and public appeals of +women, philanthropic and educational matters are being removed from the +uncertainties and fluctuations of party action. As they are thus brought +out of the sphere where woman is powerless and into that in which it is +natural for her to act, the whole force of sympathy, and her ability to +picture and to pursue an ideal, are finding exercise and are hastening the +day when there will be no slavery, no drunkenness, no war, and no +violation of woman's chastity. Dr. Jacobi, in her volume, says: "Why +should we wonder at the low tone which habitually prevails in relation to +public affairs, when the women who stand as guardians at the fountain +sources and household shrines of thought are trained to believe that there +are no Rights, but only Privileges, Expediencies, Immunities? Can those +who cower before the public ridicule which greets the enunciation of the +Rights of Women; who are habituated to stifle generous impulses for their +own larger freedom at the authoritative dictation of the men they see in +power,--can such women be relied upon to nerve the Nation's heart for +generous deeds?" Who were trained by women at the fountain sources and +household shrines? The very men whom they now see in "authoritative +dictation." And so well did they train them that when both are called upon +to nerve the nation's heart for generous deeds, they act together--the +trainer and the trained--moved by the same magnetic impulse of a noble +devotion. It is purely gratuitous to assume, because women generally have +discredited the dogma of Woman Suffrage, that they have therefore no just +conception of rights. Women are as ambitious, as self-assertive, as are +men. They deal more naturally with abstractions, and are more tenacious of +purpose. They are impatient of hindrance, and it is inconsistent with +facts to infer that they have been "stifling generous impulses for their +own larger freedom," at the dictation of their own sons. The executive +power and wisdom of these sons they feel to be the very thing they most +desire for them, a reward for their own abounding faith and love. +Privileges, Expediencies, and Immunities are their Rights. How well fitted +such rights are to enable them to nerve the Nation's heart was seen in the +great crisis we have been considering, when the ignoble dogma of Suffrage +caused its believers to fail in generous impulse and to stand aloof in the +time of a supreme need. + +I cannot agree with Dr. Jacobi that a low tone habitually prevails in +relation to public affairs. The guards freshly thrown about the ballot, +and the greater watchfulness over entrance to citizenship, are two of the +most obvious advances at this moment. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +WOMAN SUFFRAGE AND THE LAWS. + + +In the fourth and fifth counts of the Declaration of Sentiments, the +Suffragists say: "Having deprived her of this first right of a citizen, +the elective franchise, thereby leaving her without representation in the +halls of legislation, he has oppressed her on all sides." "He has made +her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead." + +The following four counts all refer to a married woman's civil deadness; +and I will give them in order, and then consider the five counts together: + +"He has taken from her all right in property, even to the wages she +earns." "He has made her, morally, an irresponsible being, as she can +commit many crimes with impunity, provided they be done in the presence of +her husband." "In the covenant of marriage, she is compelled to promise +obedience to her husband, he becoming, to all intents and purposes, her +master--the law giving him power to deprive her of her liberty, and to +administer chastisement." "He has so framed the laws of divorce, as to +what shall be proper causes, and, in case of separation, to whom the +guardianship of the children shall be given, as to be wholly regardless of +the happiness of women--the law, in all cases, going upon a false +supposition of the supremacy of man, and giving all power into his hands." + +That the women did not find themselves, as might be supposed from their +charges, living under the edicts of the Middle Ages, is proved by their +hunt through statute-books for such of the eighteen grievances as relate +to laws. They also say that "while they had felt the insults incident to +sex, in many ways, as every proud thinking woman must, yet they had not in +their own experience endured the coarser forms of tyranny resulting from +unjust laws; but had souls large enough to feel the wrongs of others." +Until they knew what those wrongs were, it would seem they could hardly +have felt for them intelligently. It would seem, too, that the great body +of American women were also unaware that they had been, and were still +being, legally and morally robbed, enslaved, and murdered. In fact, +Suffrage speakers have been compelled to account for their unconcern by +considering it the result of long subjection, and at the same time have +had to claim that these stupid beings were fit to rule with and over men. + +While the counts contain concrete statements, the closing clause--"the law +in all cases, going upon a false supposition of the supremacy of man, and +giving all power into his hands"--sets forth an abstract idea in +justification of which they furnish no proof. In the counts as they stood +in the Declaration of Sentiments, the general laws were not accused of +doing any injustice, personal or civil, to an unmarried woman, except in +reference to the one matter of withholding the vote, which they claimed +was wrong because she had an inalienable right to the ballot and was +subject to tax. Not a personal law did they ask to have changed for her +protection. They recognized the fact that, unless she was married, a woman +in the United States stood upon a legal equality with man. The hue and cry +in regard to a married woman was, that she was not treated as if _femme +sole_. The _femme sole_ could make contracts and wills, sue and be sued, +and do all and sundry in her own name that her brother could do. With a +married woman the situation was different. Will any one contend that in +the past the married woman has been held in less honor than the unmarried? +Can it be thought for a moment that the law-makers expressed their +contempt for wives and mothers, and their respect for daughters and +sisters who were unmarried? Tradition and fact, poetry and prose, romance +and reality, all go to prove that the reverential feeling of the world has +gathered about the wife and the mother. The men who made those laws turned +for their ideals of abstract justice to their mothers' faith and teaching; +and it seems most incongruous to assume, as do the Suffrage arguments, +that, while all the laws relating to women were tyrannical at some point, +those in regard to married women were the ones wherein men embodied their +most cruel and revengeful feeling. It also appears to be a gratuitous +assumption that whatever was different in the legal treatment of men and +women came from man's belief in his own supremacy, especially toward the +wife into whose hands he had committed the keeping of his home and his +honor. + +In 1881, after more than thirty years of agitation of the subject, the +Suffrage leaders said: "The condition of married women under the laws of +all countries has been essentially that of slaves, until modified in some +respects, within the last quarter of a century, in the United States." And +again they said: "The change from the old common law of England, in regard +to the civil rights of women, from 1848 to the advance legislation in most +of the Northern States in 1880, marks an era both in the status of woman +as a citizen and in our American system of jurisprudence. When the State +of New York gave married women certain rights of property, the individual +existence of the wife was recognized, and the old idea that husband and +wife are one, and that one the husband, received its death-blow. From that +hour the statutes of the several States have been steadily diverging from +the old English codes. Most of the Western States copied the advance +legislation of New York, and some are now even more liberal." + +This sentence contains another of the constantly recurring instances of +the methods by which the Suffrage mind jumps to unwarranted conclusions. +When the State of New York gave married women certain property rights, it +recognized their legal existence in a new way, but not their individual +existence--that had been recognized by every act of law and custom, from +the registry of their birth to that of their marriage or their death. +Socially and civilly, every woman in the United States had had opportunity +to make her individuality felt, and if there was any difference in +advantage in respect of this, it was supposed to lie with the married +woman. So true is this, that Mrs. Stanton and Mrs. Mott had to hunt for +oppressive laws, and most of the women of this land have no real sense of +the great and liberal change in laws concerning married women since 1848. +I am no more approving of or admiring the old English common law, or the +canon law, concerning women, than I am approving of or admiring the law +that came to light recently in the Transvaal and would have allowed the +torture of Jameson and his men, who, as a matter of fact, were allowed to +go almost unpunished. The law of the Dutch Government in Africa belonged +to the Middle Ages; their conduct belonged to to-day. I only believe that +at the time when it was possible for one man to frame for another man such +laws of physical and mental torment as every code reveals, their laws for +women were the best they could devise, and were those which led to the +freedom of the women of to-day. A law of England still favors only the +first-born son, and he only because he is the firstborn. What wonder that +girls have been denied succession; and what an evidence of man's desire to +show favor and not the "insult incident to sex," that he has placed woman +on thrones upon which he has had to sustain her by main force. + +There is no need that I should darken my pages with the English laws +concerning married women. The Suffrage leaders have spread them abroad; +Blackstone says they were intended for woman's protection and benefit, and +adds the remark, "So great a favorite is the female sex with the laws of +England." If I quoted them, I should be constrained to quote barbarous +laws concerning men of the same era, and to note the lack of all laws +concerning the brute creation; for neither of these matters is touched by +Suffrage writers. Dr. Jacobi is willing to say that "in the eye of the +law, the married white woman in the North was as devoid of personality as +the African slave in the South," and she also says: "By another error of +interpretation, certain laws which remain on the statute-book, or which +have been recently added, have been considered so peculiarly favorable to +women, that they are thought to prove a legislative tendency to grant +special immunities to women so long as they consent to remain +unfranchised." Does she mean to say that the lawmakers have asked the +women if they would consent to remain unfranchised? I thought that leaving +them unfranchised without asking their consent was, in Suffrage eyes, the +very front of the offending. The laws that remain on the statute-book, and +those that have been recently added, go to prove to my mind that the old +laws were meant to be generous as well as just; second, that the trend of +legislation _is_ peculiarly favorable to woman; and, thirdly, that those +laws which between man and man might be looked upon as offsets to suffrage +equality, between man and woman could not be so considered. They were, +therefore, proper immunities for persons whose consent was not asked +through the vote because, in the nature of the difference between the +sexes, a prime requisite for compliance was lacking. Dr. Jacobi goes on to +say: "The fear has been expressed that these 'immunities' and 'privileges' +would be forfeited were the franchise conferred. And this fear has +actually been advanced as an argument--as the basis of protest against +equal suffrage." Either the law is tyrannical to women, or it is not. If +Suffrage leaders are actually talking of its privileges and immunities to +women, and trying to explain them away, we may leave the burden of proof +to them. But as to the gist of her remark in regard to the connection +between legal privileges and equal suffrage: Fear of losing the legal +immunities that are granted to both married and unmarried women on account +of their attitude as wards of the State when they are not able to assume +the first duty implied in giving up the wardship--that of physical defence +to themselves and others--is a most legitimate fear, and is a sound reason +for protest against equal suffrage. Wrapped up with the legal privileges +of women are those of their children--the rights of minors. For boys, +special privileges cease at the age of twenty-one. For girls, they do not. +Legal equality would set the boy and the girl on the same level at once. +The law of equality could know no such thing as "exemption" for the +unmarried woman, or "dower right" or "maintenance" for the married woman +that would not be equally binding on both husband and wife. In Germany, +rich American women are maintaining their land-poor husbands under legal +stress, "in the style to which they have been accustomed," because the law +of Germany is "equal" in respect to property maintenance of husband and +wife. In Ohio, where Suffrage agitation has been persistent, the +legislature in 1894 passed an act "enabling a husband, as well as a wife, +to sue and obtain alimony pending divorce proceedings." + +We began by talking of legal disabilities, and, led by the Suffragists +themselves, are already discussing legal immunities. + +The editors of the "History" say: "The laws affecting woman's civil rights +have been greatly improved during the past thirty years, but the political +demand has made but questionable progress, though it must be counted as +the chief influence in modifying the laws. The selfishness of man was +readily enlisted in securing woman's civil rights, while the same element +in his character antagonized her demand for political equality." If it was +his selfishness that procured woman civil rights and privileges, was it +his unselfishness that formerly denied them? The fact that the States that +granted them first, and most fully, are the ones where Suffrage has made +least progress, suggests the injustice of the charge. + +But a question of real interest is, must the political demand made by +women be counted as the chief influence in modifying the laws? + +In 1836, Judge Hertell presented, in the New York Legislature, a bill to +secure property rights to married women, which had been drawn up under the +supervision of the Hon. John Savage, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, +and the Hon. John C. Spencer, one of the revisers of the statutes. In its +behalf Ernestine Rose and Paulina Wright Davis circulated a petition, to +which they gained only five signatures among their own sex. + +Ernestine Rose was a Polish Jewess who had renounced all faith with her +own. She was an extreme communist, and before coming here to labor for +Liberalism and Woman Suffrage, she had presided over a body called "An +Association of all Classes of all Nations, without distinction of sect, +sex, party condition, or color." Paulina Wright Davis, gifted though she +was, was a radical of an extreme type. How much the character of the +advocates had to do with their failure, it is impossible to say, but it +appears to be another proof of the evil influence of Suffrage action upon +woman's progress that so good a work should have been in hands so unfitted +for it. The bill did not become a law. Mrs. Rose records that she +continued to send petitions with increased numbers of signatures until +1848-49; that from 1837 to 1848 she addressed the New York Legislature +five times, and a good many times after the latter date. That she was not +recognized as an aid to legislation seems evident from the testimony that +follows. + +In the previous chapter I have quoted the editors of the "History" as +saying that the first thing that led them to demand political rights was +the discussion, in several of the State legislatures, of these property +questions in regard to married women. Another proof that they did not +inspire the early laws is seen in the following extracts from a letter +from the Hon. George Geddes, written to Mrs. Gage, in 1880, and answering +her question as to who was responsible for the Married-Woman's Property- +Rights bill, which was passed in 1848. He said: + +"I have very distinct recollections of the whole history of this very +radical measure. Judge Fine, of St. Lawrence, was its originator, and he +gave me his reasons for introducing the bill. He said that he married a +lady who had some property of her own, which he had, all his life, tried +to keep distinct from his, that she might have the benefit of her own, in +the event of any disaster happening to him in pecuniary matters. He had +found much difficulty, growing out of the old laws, in this effort to +protect his wife's interests.... I, too, had special reasons for desiring +this change in the law. I had a young daughter, who, in the then condition +of my health, was quite likely to be left in tender years without a +father, and I very much desired to protect her in the little property I +might be able to leave.... I believe this law originated with Judge Fine, +without any outside prompting. On the third day of the session he gave +notice of his intention to introduce it, and only one petition was +presented in favor of the bill, and that came from Syracuse, and was due +to the action of my personal friends.... We all felt that the laws +regulating married women's, as well as married men's, rights demanded +careful revision and adaptation to our times and to our civilization.... +In reply to your inquiries in regard to debates that preceded the action +of 1848, I must say I know of none, and I am quite sure that in our long +discussions no allusion was made to anything of the kind." + +It would thus appear that neither Mrs. Gage, nor Mrs. Stanton, nor Miss +Anthony knew the names of the proposer and defenders of the bill that +opened the way in New York for all the liberal legislation that has +followed, and thirty years after its passage they inquired whether any +debates had preceded it. Certainly, then, their own had not. It is also +evident how much "selfishness" prompted the bill. + +In a pamphlet published by the New York Woman-Suffrage Association to +report their proceedings during the Constitutional Convention of 1894, it +is recorded that Mr. F. B. Church, of Alleghany, presented an appeal from +his county asking for the suffrage. In the course of his remarks he said: +"Sir, beginning in 1848, the male citizens of the State of New York, not +at the clamor of the women, as I understand it, but actuated by a sense of +justice, began to remove the disabilities under which women labored at +that time. Gradually, from that time on, the barriers had been stricken +away, until, in 1891, I believe, the last impediments were removed." + +In 1844, Rhode Island had passed property laws for married women. In 1848- +9 Connecticut and Texas, as well as New York, did so, apparently +uninfluenced by anything except their "sense of justice." In 1850-'52 +Alabama and Maine passed such laws. In 1853 New Hampshire, Indiana, +Wisconsin, and Iowa changed their laws in this respect. They moved forward +in this reform, as did the other States, before there was even a beginning +of Suffrage agitation in them. + +In 1847, Mrs. C. J. II. Nichols, who afterward became a Suffrage worker, +addressed to the voters of Vermont a series of editorials setting forth +the property disabilities of women. In October of that year, Hon. Larkin +Mead, moved, he said, by her presentation, introduced a bill into the +Senate, which, becoming a law, secured to the wife real estate owned by +her at marriage, or acquired by gift, devise, or inheritance during +marriage, with the rents, issues, and profits, as against any debts of the +husband; but to make a sale or conveyance of either her realty or its use +valid, it must be the joint act of husband and wife. She might by last +will and testament dispose of her lands, tenements, hereditaments, and any +interest therein descendable to her heirs, as if "sole." Mrs. Nichols says +that in 1852 she drew up a petition signed by more than two hundred +business men and tax-paying widows, asking the Legislature to make women +voters in school matters. Mrs. Nichols's report is clear, sound, definite, +and she seems to have been of real service, and to have won what she +sought. She says, "Up to 1850 I had not taken position for suffrage, +although I had shown the absurdity of regarding it as unwomanly." She +appears to have done a great deal of clever as well as earnest and +spirited talking in the West, after she had "taken position for suffrage," +and she reports that, when she removed to Kansas, her claims were for +"equal educational rights and privileges in all the schools and +institutions of learning fostered or controlled by the State." "An equal +right in all matters pertaining to the organization and conduct of the +common schools." "Recognition of the mother's equal right with the father +to the control and custody of their mutual offspring." "Protection in +person, property, and earnings for married women and widows, the same as +for men." The first three were fully granted, the fourth was changed as to +"personal service." In her pleading for "political rights," she was +associated with John O. Wattles, and the amendment they proposed was +defeated in the Legislature. + +Petitions for "Woman's Right" and changes of the laws were circulated in +Massachusetts as early as 1848. In 1849, a year after the first Suffrage +Convention, Ohio, Maine, Indiana, and Missouri, had passed laws giving to +married women the right to their own earnings. A "Memorial" was sent by +the Suffrage Association to the Ohio Constitutional Convention in 1850, +from which I take the following: "We believe the whole theory of the +common law in relation to woman is unjust and degrading." (Then follows +political injustice.) "We would especially call your attention to the +legal condition of married women." (Then follow general statements and +quotations from the common law.) The attention of the memorialists was +called by the proper authorities to the fact that the statute laws of Ohio +had radically changed the general matters charged. In answering comment, +Mrs. Coe said: "The committee were perfectly aware of the existence of the +statutes mentioned, but did not see fit to incorporate them in the +petition, not only on account of their great length, but because they do +not at all invalidate the position which the petition affects to +establish--the inequality of the sexes before the law; because if the wife +departs from the conditions of the statutes, and thus comes under the +common law, they are against her." She then adds: "There are other laws +which might be mentioned, which really give woman an apparent advantage +over man; yet, having no relevancy to the subject in the petition, we did +not see fit to introduce them." + +The ignorance displayed here is phenomenal. Common law is operative only +in the absence of statute law. The Ohio statute (as with all statutes) +superseded the common law; and if the woman "departs from the condition of +the statute," she suffers the penalty prescribed therein, without +reference to her previous position before the law. + +One of the earliest demands made by the Suffrage Association was for a law +that should allow of absolute divorce for drunkenness; and this was soon +followed by demands for divorce for other causes. In presenting a petition +to the New York Legislature, pressing these measures, Mrs. Stanton +addressed the Assembly, and from her remarks I take the following words: +"Allow me to call the attention of that party now so much interested in +the slave of the Carolinas to the similarity in his condition and that of +the mothers, wives, and daughters of the Empire State. The negro has no +name. He is Cuffy Douglas, or Cuffy Brooks, just whose Cuffy he may chance +to be. The woman has no name. She is Mrs. Richard Roe, or Mrs. John Doe, +just whose Mrs. she may chance to be. Cuffy has no right to his earnings; +he cannot buy or sell, nor make contracts, nor lay up anything that he can +call his own. Mrs. Roe has no right to her earnings; she can neither buy, +sell, nor make contracts, nor lay up anything that she can call her own. +Cuffy has no right to his children; they may be bound out to cancel a +father's debts of honor. The white unborn child, even by the last will of +the father, may be placed under the guardianship of a stranger, a +foreigner. Cuffy has no legal right to existence; he is subject to +restraint and moderate chastisement. Mrs. Roe has no legal existence; she +has not the best right to her person. The husband has the power to +restrain and administer moderate chastisement. The prejudice against +color, of which we hear so much, is no stronger than that against sex. It +is produced by the same cause, and manifested very much in the same way. +The negro's skin and the woman's sex are both _prima facie_ evidence that +they were intended to be in subjection to the white Saxon man. The few +social privileges which the man gives the woman, he makes up to the negro +in civil rights. The woman may sit at the same table and eat with the +white man; the free negro may hold property and vote." + +It is difficult for our thought to reach the low level from which this +comparison is made. It ignores all the moral and spiritual conceptions +that gave rise to and hallow marriage. But looking upon marriage as a mere +financial compact, and taking the laws even as they then were, a few +things may be said. "Cuffy has no name that he can call his own." +Elizabeth Cady Stanton has her own baptismal name, the name of her honored +father, and that of her honored husband, and the opportunity to make those +names more her own by personal achievement than any one's else. Her +mother, her father, her husband, and her son are as dependent upon her for +preserving the character and distinctiveness of that name, as she is upon +them. Why Lucy Stone should have put inconvenience and indignity upon both +herself and her husband for the sake of continuing to wear her father's +name instead of assuming her husband's, I never could understand. She did +not share the name she gave her child. And there is another distinction +between the nameless Cuffy and the trebly-named Saxon woman. The husband's +name was not thrust upon her. By uttering the simple monosyllable "No," +she could decline to wear it. It was only as she consented to be mistress +of a husband's heart and home that she passed from the condition of _femme +sole_ and acquired a title and an additional name. "Cuffy has no right to +his earnings." This would be of less consequence to Cuffy if he had a +right to his master's earnings. When a right to another's earnings goes +along with the mutual relation toward a home of master and mistress, the +difference between Cuffy and Mrs. Roe is unspeakable. "Cuffy cannot buy or +sell, make contracts, nor lay up anything that he can call his own." If +Cuffy had the right to prevent his master from buying, selling, making +contracts, or laying up anything that he could call his own until Cuffy's +wants had been provided for in the most ample manner, the world would have +felt less moved over Cuffy's wrongs. "Cuffy has no right to his children." +Mrs. Roe has a right to compel Mr. Roe to bestow his name upon her +children, and to support the boys until they are twenty-one, and the girls +forever. "Cuffy has no legal right to existence." Mrs. Roe has so much +legal right to existence that she stands toward the State and toward her +husband in the relation of a preferred creditor. The State cannot call +upon her for its most arduous duties, which must however be performed in +her behalf. Her husband cannot dispose of real property without her +signature. If he dies solvent, nothing can prevent her taking a fair share +of his estate, and he may give her the whole; but if he dies bankrupt, +neither his will, nor the State, nor anything else, can make her pay one +dollar of his debts. "Cuffy is subject to restraint and moderate +chastisement." "The husband has the power to restrain and administer +moderate chastisement." The public horsewhipping of a husband by his wife +is a rare sight, but when it occurs the law is far more ready to overlook +the breach of order than it is to permit the slightest attempt at assault +and battery upon the wife. As the remaining statements have no reference +to the laws, I may excuse myself from telling how strangely beneath the +dignity of truth they seem to me. That they were urged in connection with +a bill asking for divorce for drunkenness suggests that such a plea was +made an entering wedge for the radical divorce measures that have been +advocated in Suffrage conventions. Any State would, at that time, grant +legal separation for a wife from a drunken husband, and would compel the +husband to support the wife to the extent of his means. + +This matter of easier divorce has been pressed steadily from the +beginning, but with very little of the result that the Suffragists +desired. + +In the Convention of the National Council of Women, which met in +Washington, D. C., in February, 1895, the Suffrage Associations were +largely represented. Their committee on divorce reform consisted of Ellen +Battelle Dietrick, Chairman, and Mary A. Livermore and Fanny B. Ames. +Their report was, in part, as follows: "In accordance with the +instructions of the Executive Committee of the Council, your chairman sent +forty-eight letters to the Governors of States and Territories, asking +each to call the attention of his legislature to the situation concerning +divorce laws, and requesting the appointment of a committee to consider +the matter, said committee to consist of an equal number of men and +women." + +Here it is the same old story. Theirs is not an intelligent presentment of +changes desired, but simply a continued urging of women for personal share +in the making of the laws. In commenting upon the refusal of the Governor +of Iowa, among others, the Committee says: "And yet Iowa is one of the +States which has recently formed a commission of men to consider making +Iowa divorce laws uniform with those of all other States." The laws that +make it possible for a woman divorced in one State to be looked upon in +another State as still bound, were not petitioned against. + +Uniformity in the divorce laws of the United States is one of the great +legislative reforms that are moving slowly but surely; and with that, it +appears, the Suffrage appeal has nothing to do. The Committee closed its +report by saying: "We might as well face the fact that the official +servants of the United States cherish frank contempt for woman's opinions +and wishes, and that, too, in regard to a matter which concerns the +welfare of women far more vitally than it does the welfare of men. The one +thing we should deprecate is having men make any new laws or fresh +provisions for women's protection." + +In the spring of 1854 Miss Anthony and Ernestine Rose presented a petition +to the New York Legislature, and the Albany "Argus," of March 4, published +a résumé of their appeal. The demands were: That husband and wife should +be tenants in common of property, without survivorship, but with a +partition on the death of one; that a wife should be competent to +discharge trusts and powers the same as a single woman; that the statute +in respect to a married woman's property be changed so that her property +could descend as though she had been unmarried; that married women should +be entitled to execute letters testamentary, and of administration; that +married women should have power to make contracts and transact business as +though unmarried; that they should be entitled to their own earnings, +subject to their proportional liability for support of children; that +post-nuptial acquisitions should belong equally to husband and wife; that +married women should stand on the same footing as single women, as parties +or witnesses in legal proceedings; that they should be sole guardians of +the minor children; that the homestead should be inviolable and +inalienable for widows and children; that the laws in relation to divorce +should be revised, and drunkenness made cause for absolute divorce; that +better care should be taken of single women's property, that their rights +might not be lost through ignorance; that the preference of males in the +descent of real estate should be abolished; that women should exercise the +right of suffrage, and be eligible to all offices, occupations, and +professions, and to act as jurors; that courts of conciliation should be +organized as peacemakers; that a law should be enacted extending the +masculine designation in all statutes of the State to females. + + +I cannot fully understand Miss Anthony's position; but in some notable +particulars, not her laws but better ones are in force. When Miss Anthony +wrote to inquire who was responsible for repealing an act of 1860 for +which she had worked with her well-known zeal, Judge Charles J. Folger +replied, in part: "I think--with deference I say it--that you are not +strictly accurate in calling the legislation of 1862 a repealing one. In +but one thing did it repeal, in the sense of taking away right or power or +privilege or freedom that the Act of 1860 gave. On the contrary, in some +respects it gave more or greater." + +Miss Anthony says, in comment on Judge Folger's letter: "Mr. Folger makes +mistakes in regard to the effect of these bills; quite forgetting that the +wife has never had an equal right to the joint earnings of the +copartnership, as no valuation has ever been placed on her labor in the +household, to which she gives all her time, thought, and strength. A law +securing to the wife the absolute right to half the joint earnings, and, +at the death of the husband, the same control of property and children +that he has when she dies, might make some show of justice; but it is a +provision not yet on the statute-books of any civilized nation." + +If it were to be placed on the statute-book, would not one have to be +placed beside it making the wife equally responsible for the support of +the husband? The law can only take cognizance of the earnings of that +member of the firm who transacts business with the outside world. How the +proceeds of mutual labor shall be best made their own is for each husband +and wife to settle; it cannot be matter of legislation. It is interesting +to think what an increase of domesticity there would be if a business +partnership, such as Miss Anthony suggests, were demanded by the statutes. +The law, which now lays the whole support on the husband and father, +whether the wife and daughter work in the home or not, would make it +obligatory for the home partner to give all her time, thought, and +strength to labor in the household, in order to bring in her bill for +services. + +The real test of the working of woman suffrage is to be found in the +answer to the question whether better laws have been framed as a +consequence? + +There has been no advance in legislation in Utah or Wyoming through the +action or votes of women. The authorities whom I have consulted do not +know of any legislation in Colorado which, can be traced directly to the +presence of women in the legislature. Exception may possibly be made in +regard to the Age-of-Consent bill, which, in common with nearly all the +States, Colorado passed in favor of raising the age. That bill was +introduced by a woman member, and was strongly advocated by the others, +and it called forth an unwise discussion and a repulsive scene in the +House. A great many women have been elected to county offices, in that +State, especially those connected with the schools, and those of Clerk and +Treasurer. In answer to a question, my correspondent adds: "I do not know +of any great improvements of any kind or description in our county affairs +that have been made in the past four years." + +In Wyoming, where women have voted so many years, less restraint is +imposed on liquor-selling than in most of the other States. Divorce is +granted for any one of eleven causes, after a residence of but six months. +The age of consent was only fourteen years as late as 1890. Gambling is +legal; not only do the laws mention many games with cards as lawful, but a +statute declares: "No town, city, or municipal corporation in this +Territory shall hereafter have power to prohibit, suppress or regulate any +gaming-house or game, licensed as provided for in this chapter." +"Excusable homicide" is also defined by statute. It is allowable "when +committed by accident or misfortune, in the heat of passion or sufficient +provocation, or upon a sudden combat; provided that no undue advantage is +taken, nor any dangerous weapon used, and that the killing is not done in +a cruel or unusual manner." The laws could hardly have been worse before +women voted. + +It is matter of surprise to find how generally in Western towns and States +in which woman has voted or held office, "Woman has degraded politics, and +politics has degraded woman." This is not, to my mind, proof that American +women are degenerating, but it suggests that the women who have sought +political life are not representative. + +Another legal demand very early made by the Suffrage leaders was that for +the entrance of women into men's colleges. So far as the State could +control this by law, it has done so. Every educational institution that +receives State support, from the primary school to the State University, +is now open to women. Cornell University, opened in October, 1868, was +aided by a State gift of a million acres, and opened its doors to women in +April, 1872. In the West, the State Universities would have been closed +for lack of pupils, during the war, if women had not attended them. + +The New York State Suffrage Association includes in its report of the +doings at the Constitutional Convention a report of its legislative work +for the twenty-two years of its existence. Of the many petitions presented +during those years, but three relate to anything but Suffrage in some +form, and these did not originate with the New York Suffrage Association. +One of these three related to the bill to secure police matrons in New +York City. Work was begun in 1882 and ended in success in 1891, there +being strong opposition to it. The act to provide woman physicians for +prisons, and one making mother and father joint guardians of children, +passed in 1888 and 1892. Three of the Suffrage bills refer to school +matters, one of which was successful and two were lost. Five relate to +municipal suffrage, all of which were defeated. The remaining sixteen +bills were all for full suffrage, were all urged by many speakers, and +were all defeated. I give, in closing, Mr. Francis M. Scott's summary of +the laws of New York State that relate especially to women and are in +force to-day. Much special legislation urged by Suffrage petitions has not +been enacted at all, and much has been passed in a different form. +Suffragists say that the change of laws constitutes no reason for opposing +suffrage, but to my mind it constitutes a most excellent one. What has +been done by petition proves the power to do more by the same means, and +the fact that much of the best legislation has been against the demand of +the Suffragists or in precedence of it, proves that the rights of women +are in hands that are capable of meeting fresh interests as they arise. + +Every profession and business is open to women to exactly the same extent +as to men, and already women have found a place in law, medicine, +architecture, journalism, and other professions. + +Single women always could engage in commercial and mercantile pursuits +without hindrance or restriction. + +Notwithstanding her marriage, a woman now holds and enjoys her separate +property, however acquired, freed from any interference or control on the +part of her husband, and from all liability for his debts. + +She may sell, assign, and transfer her real and personal property, and +carry on any trade or business and perform any labor and services on her +own sole and separate account, and her earnings are her own sole and +separate property. + +She may sue and be sued, as if she were unmarried, and may maintain an +action in her own name for injury to her person or character (including +actions for slander or libel), and the proceeds of any such action are her +sole and separate property. + +She may contract to the same extent, with like effect in the same form as +if she were unmarried, and she and her separate estate are liable thereon. + +A widow is endowed of the third part of all the real estate whereof her +husband is seized of an estate of inheritance at any time during the +marriage. This interest, termed during the lifetime of her husband +_inchoate_, attaches at the instant of marriage to all real estate the +husband then owns, and after marriage to all real estate he acquires. +Having once attached, it cannot be divested by any act of the husband, or +any of his creditors. The wife alone can release it, and she forfeits it +only in case of a divorce dissolving the marriage for her misconduct. + +The husband cannot either sell or devise his real estate, except subject +to this dower right of his wife. The husband's estate by courtesy in his +wife's real estate is by no means so broad or so well secured as is the +wife's right of dower. It does not attach at all until the birth of a +living child, and the wife may absolutely defeat it at any time without +any consent on the part of her husband, either by conveying her real +estate during her lifetime, or by devising it by her will. It is no longer +necessary for the husband to join with the wife in conveying her property. + +A husband is liable for necessaries purchased by his wife, and also for +money given to the wife by a third person in order to enable her to +purchase necessaries, and he is bound to support her and her children +without regard to the extent of her individual and separate estate. No +similar obligation to furnish necessaries to a husband is imposed upon a +wife. The legal definition of necessaries is very broad, being "such +things as are actually required for the wife's support commensurate with +the husband's means, her wonted living as his spouse, and her station in +the community." + +In case of a divorce, whether partial or absolute, obtained by the wife, +the husband is required to pay _alimony_ for her support during the rest +of her life, even if she should re-marry. A wife from whom a husband +obtains a divorce cannot be required to contribute in any way to his +support. + +Although the law has opened wide the door for all women to engage in +business, it still discriminates in their favor in many particulars. No +woman can be arrested in a civil action, or held by an execution against +the body, except in cases in which it is shown that she has committed "a +wilful injury to person, character, or property," or has been guilty of +such an evasion of duty as is equivalent to a contempt of court. Thus a +woman engaged in business cannot be arrested in an action for a debt +fraudulently contracted. + +All women judgment debtors, whether married or single, enjoy certain +exemptions from the sale of their property under execution, which, in the +case of men, extend only to a householder; that is, a man who has, and +provides for, a household or family. + +Every married woman is the joint guardian of her children with her +husband, with equal powers, rights, and duties in regard to them with her +husband. It is only the survivor, be it father or mother, who possesses +the right to appoint a guardian by deed or by will. She has now equal +rights with the father over her children. + +As matter of practice, the courts when called upon to award the custody of +minor children in cases of separation, determine the question with +reference solely to the interests of the child, with a strong leaning in +the mother's favor. + +A husband's creditors have no claim upon the proceeds of a policy of +insurance upon his life for the benefit of his wife, unless the annual +premiums paid by him shall have exceeded five hundred dollars. The +proceeds of such a policy are exempt from execution for any debt owed by +the wife. + +The statutes contain a large number of special provisions for the benefit +of female employees in factories and mercantile houses. In the city of New +York, if any man fails to pay the wages due a female employee up to fifty +dollars, not only is none of his property exempt from execution, but he is +liable to be imprisoned upon a body execution, and kept in close +confinement without the privilege of bail. A similar rule is applicable in +Brooklyn. + +No woman can be called upon to perform military duty. + +No woman can be required to serve upon any jury. + +No woman can be called upon by the sheriff or any peace officer to assist +in quelling a disturbance or making an arrest. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +WOMAN SUFFRAGE AND THE TRADES. + + +The fifth count in the Suffrage Declaration of Sentiments reads as +follows: "He has monopolized nearly all the profitable employments, and +from those she is permitted to follow she receives but scanty +remuneration." + +The women who wrote that in 1848, in common with the majority of American +women, were presumably being well provided for in their own homes, by men +whose boast it was that their wives and daughters did not need or care to +seek employment elsewhere. It is true that at that time, because of this +supposed advantage, as married women they could not have engaged in +separate business that would involve the making of contracts or distinct +bargain and sale. To the world the husband was the wife's financial +manager. But at that time the wife could enter any of the employments as a +paid clerk or worker. This count seems more surprising in view of the fact +that, writing only three years later, to a Suffrage convention that met in +Akron, Ohio, Mrs. Stanton said: "The trades and professions are all open +to us; let us quietly enter and make ourselves, if not rich and famous, at +least independent and respectable." Two years later still, Colonel Thomas +W. Higginson wrote to another Suffrage convention that met in Akron, Ohio: +"We complain of the industrial disadvantages of women, and indicate at the +same time their capacities for a greater variety of pursuits. Why not +obtain a statement on as large a scale as possible, first of what women +are doing now, commercially and mechanically, throughout the Union, and +secondly, of the embarrassments which they meet, the inequality of their +wages, and all the other peculiarities of their position." This would have +been most valuable and interesting, and it would seem that something of +the kind should have preceded the sweeping accusation made in the +Declaration; but there appears in their "History" no evidence of its +having been done. In 1859 Caroline H. Ball said, in addressing a Suffrage +convention: "I honor women who act. That is the reason that I greet so +gladly girls like Harriet Hosmer, Louisa Landor, and Margaret Foley. +Whatever they do, or do not do, for Art, they do a great deal for the +cause of labor. I do not believe any one in this room has an idea of the +avenues that are open to women already." Then follows a list of the trades +then pursued by women in Great Britain. Of the United States she said: "Of +factory operatives in 1845 there were 55,828 men and 75,710 women. Women +are glue-makers, glove-makers, workers in gold and silver leaf, hair- +weavers, hat and cap-makers, hose-weavers, workers in India-rubber, paper- +hangers, physicians, picklers and preservers, saddlers and harness-makers, +shoe-makers, soda-room keepers, snuff and cigar-makers, stock and +suspender-makers, truss-makers, typers and stereotypers, umbrella-makers, +upholsterers, card-makers, photographers, house and sign-painters, fruit- +hawkers, button-makers, tobacco-packers, paper-box makers, embroiderers, +and fur-sewers." She added: "In New Haven seven women work with seventy +men in a clock factory (at half wages)." And in summing up she said: "The +great evils that lie at the foundation of depressed wages are that want of +respect for labor which prevents ladies from engaging in it, and that want +of respect for women which prevents men from valuing properly the work +they do. Make women equal with men before the law, and wages will adjust +themselves." + +Women are equal with men legally and wages have not adjusted themselves, +and the law has had no control over the feelings and opinions of men and +women. Those who were large-minded enough to respect labor asked no +warrant from legislation, and those who were small-minded enough to +undervalue woman's work because it was woman's, do so still despite the +statutes, and would if women voted at every election. Men were equal with +each other before the law, but that did not compel the respect of foolish +men, nor did their wages adjust themselves to equality on that account. If +there were more men working in a trade in a given place than the demand +for their products required, the wage would fall, and so it must with +women. But reasons entered into the market value of woman's work that did +not enter into that of men. Mrs. Dall mentions but one trade in which the +wages were lower for women, and there they competed with men. Those seven +women working with the seventy men in New Haven were not expected to be +called upon to support a family by their earnings. If they were girls, in +the natural course of things they were expected to leave the work whenever +they were ready to marry. If one of them married one of the seventy men, +the firm of employers would lose her services entirely; but the man who +married her would be depended upon to work more steadily than before, and +he would also have more incentive to do better work in order to command +still higher wages. The long cry of Suffrage has not been able to bring +about "equal pay for equal work," even where legislation to that effect +has been introduced into Trades Unions and State laws. This has still +rested, and must rest, with the employer, and his action must be governed +by quality and demand and supply. The attempt to secure "equal wages" +among men has resulted in bringing down the wages of all to the point of +the poorer workers. The general laws of trade, like those of government, +are based on principles of universal equity, and however strenuously +temporary deviations may be pressed, they return at last to the natural +position. This is not saying that there is not great injustice toward +labor by capital, and toward capital by labor, but that the foundation +principles tend to govern the mutual relations, and forcing that is +contrary to these cannot be permanently successful. If the work of women +for any reason is unequal, the wages will be, and the mere fact that some +particular women work for some particular time the same number of hours, +and as well as do the men in the same establishments, does not do away +with the fact that women's work in general is not as steady as men's, and +is not expected to meet the same emergency of family support. No one can +believe more fully than I in equal wages for work that is really equal; +but it seems to me that private contract, and not public action, must +regulate the matter of special wage. + +Government reports show that the average age of the working-girl in this +country is but twenty-two years, and that after twenty the number falls +off rapidly. Unskilled labor must forever take the place of that which is +withdrawn, which is another and most valid reason for lower wages. That +lower wages are the result of natural causes, and not of unnatural +feeling, is shown in many ways. Woman teachers at the West, where +teachers were needed, received as good pay as did men. In New York I heard +Superintendent Jasper, I think it was, say: "I am in favor of equal pay +for equal work, for the two sexes; but we cannot give it here. We can get +twice as many good women teachers as men teachers, and when we need men we +must pay at a higher rate." This does not extend to the highest grade of +teachers, superintendents, and professors in colleges, where men compete +with one another. There the compensation is the same for equal work. In +the highest forms of work women compete on equal terms. In literature +women are paid, for books or articles, the same prices that men receive. +In art this is true. It is the picture or statue or musical ability that +counts. Singers receive as much for the soprano as for the tenor voice. +Actresses are paid according to "drawing" power, and woman dancers and +acrobats, alas! command the highest price. + +There is, among others, this fundamental difference between the business +life of men and women. For men who pursue occupations outside the home, +there are women to manage that home. For women who pursue occupations +outside the home, there are, not men, but other women, to manage the home. +The final domestic care of the world must come upon women. The final +attention to social life must come upon women. In behalf of the women who +are constrained, or who choose, to sacrifice their share in this part of +the world's necessary work, some other women must do double duty. That +this rule has seeming exceptions does not make it less the universal rule. + +Nothing, not even "industrial emancipation," is gotten for nothing. + +When the count cited above from the Suffrage indictment was written, the +factory system had been established in this country twenty-six years. From +the Revolution down to 1822, the women of the land had been busy in the +homes making the household and personal wear. Sixteen years after the +introduction of machinery into Lowell, Mass., 12,507 operatives were at +work there, the majority of whom were women, American women and girls. New +York State also had its mills. "Fanny Forester" (afterward Mrs. Judson) +worked in a mill near her home in that State. She went there, as did hosts +of New England girls, Lucy Larcom and Harriet Robinson among the number, +to relieve the home, but especially to gain the means of education, for +themselves and for their brothers and sisters. The towns afforded better +libraries, and there were evening classes that they could attend, things +not to be had in the farming districts. In 1850, in twenty-five States, +the factory census reported 32,295 men and 62,661 women workers. In 1860 +there were 46,859 men and 75,169 women. Hosiery machinery at this time was +giving employment to three times as many women as men. But the emigrant, +and not the American man, had been the means of turning out the native +woman worker; it was the foreign-born woman who worked for "unequal pay." +In 1846, the sewing-machine had been invented. Previous to that time, +61,500 women were employed making boys' clothing by hand for the market, +which was twice the number of men so employed, while the woman tailor was +as familiar a figure as the dress-maker in every village, where she went +from house to house. + +In 1861 came our Civil War, with its awful sacrifice of young men. With +that also came the heavy money loss, and consequent inability of many men, +even where life and limb had been spared, to support their families in the +homes. That great conflict, with its stern necessities, its lessons of +mutual helpfulness, its military discipline, which taught the value of +organization, did more than could ten thousand conventions, even had they +been working with knowledge and system, to instruct women in love for work +for others. It nerved them to labor for self-support and for the support +of those who were now dependent upon them' because the strong arm had +fallen and the willing heart had ceased to beat. Before the year 1861 had +closed, there were a million women in this country earning their daily +bread by honorable labor. As time went on, and the slaughter continued, +and the nation's debt piled up, and prices became almost fabulous, more +and more women asked through blinding tears, "What can I do?" Every trade +was thrown open to women, and the laws had placed the married woman where +she could compete on equal terms with her unmarried sister, even though +she still had the advantage of a husband's support. + +A great pother has lately been made by Suffrage workers in New York +because a bill was proposed prohibiting married women from teaching in the +public schools. This has been the unwritten law in many places for years. +The practice was adopted to offset the maintenance of married women. +Teachers should receive more pay, but so should poets and artists, and we +all hope the time will come when brain work will have more tangible market +value. + +The sewing-machine had thrown women out of employment, as with it one +woman could do the work of many. The number of work-seekers was enlarged +by the influx, from the desolated South, of women whose entire living had +been swept away. This army of uneducated workers from all sections were +compelled not only to compete with men but with themselves as well. They +sought, and could seek, only the lighter employments. Suffragists had +their wish in regard to man's relinquishment of the "profitable +employments," but not in the way they intended. The women for whose sake +those profitable employments had been "monopolized" were now not only +allowed by law but compelled by circumstance to toil from sun to sun at +the best they could find to do; their frailer organizations were forced to +bear "the double curse of work and pain." A nobler army of martyrs never +turned their sorrows into blessings by the spirit in which they met them, +than the American women who put their shoulders to the wheels of business +that were moving in a hundred ways. + +In 1843 a humble beginning at industrial education for girls had been made +by the Female Guardian Society. In 1854 Peter Cooper established the +Cooper Union with its generous facilities for women in industry and the +arts. The Young Women's Christian Association was founded in Normal, +Illinois, in 1872, and its work in the industrial branch spread, before +many years, to every city and town in the land. Men originated for women +the first "Woman's Protective Union." In twenty-five years it had reported +legal suits won for 12,000 women, and $41,000 collected. In 1869 the great +organization of the Knights of Labor was founded, and in its body of rules +was one "to secure for both sexes equal pay for equal work." Failure +proves that labor cannot, any more than paper, be coined into money by the +mere fiat of a government or an organization. + +But the great impulse to industrial education came through the Centennial +Exposition held at Philadelphia in 1876. While the land was filled with +the hum of preparation, as their contribution to that indication of +peaceful progress, the Suffrage Associations were rolling up another +petition in which to set forth their wrongs. After General Hawley, manager +of the Exposition, had courteously refused to receive it in a public +meeting, it was "pressed upon the Nation's heart" by delegates who pushed +their way into Independence Hall. Outside that historic building, under +the broiling sun, with Matilda Joslyn Gage to hold an umbrella over her, +Miss Anthony read aloud a "Declaration of Independence" that re-echoed the +sentiments of their first Declaration. It began by saying: "While the +nation is buoyant with patriotism, and all hearts are attuned to praise, +it is with sorrow we come to strike the one discordant note"--a typical +and prophetic sentence. + +From 1876 girls, as well as boys, received manual training in the public +schools, and when that proved impracticable, the way was found to open +industrial schools that should include classes for girls. Every State, and +almost every city and town of any size, had them. It was not long ere +multitudes of societies and organizations furnished means for women's +education in business and mechanic arts. The growth of the philanthropy of +self-help is one of the wonders of the past twenty-five years, and women, +without the ballot, have largely assisted in developing it. + +John Graham Brooks, in a lecture delivered in New York in the winter of +1895-6, on "Some Economic Aspects of the Woman Question," said: "Woman who +used to do her work in the house now does it in the factory, and the same +work, doing her work under absolutely new and different conditions, a +change so great that it closes finally one argument that I hear again and +again by those opposed to woman suffrage--namely, that the place for woman +is in the home." + +One condition under which she works that is not "absolutely new and +different" is that of sex. Whatever as a woman she could not do in the +home she cannot do abroad as a working-woman. She is in business as a +business woman, not as a business man. Economic equality in such things as +she can do is as unlike to a similarity in work which ignores sex +conditions as a business corporation is to the government under whose laws +it exists and by which its rights are defended. But even the external +conditions are not so changed as might at first appear. The statistical +proof of the youth of the majority of workers, the comparatively small +number out of the whole population who go into business, and the fact that +the domestic work for these very workers must be done by women, all show +this. + +The United States Census of 1890 shows that not quite four million women +are "engaged in gainful occupations." Of these more than one and a half +million are in domestic service, and nearly half a million in professional +service, mainly as teachers. The most striking gain has been made in the +lighter forms of profitable labor--by stenographers, typewriters, +telegraph and telephone operators, cashiers, bookkeepers, etc. In 1870 +there were 19,828 of these; in 1890, there were 228,421. The invention of +the type-writing machine appears to be the ballot that has mainly produced +this result. Carrol D. Wright says that in twenty cities examined in the +United States he found, among 17,000 working-women, that 15,887 were +single, 1,038 were widows, and 745 were married. This tells the same +story. The mass of these women, like the mass of men, are working, not for +public influence or station, but for the owning and holding of a home. The +latest effort in self-help for the working class is the wise one of +building them good homes. The best renting property has been found to be +that which gives privacy and those distinctions that mark the family. + +The latest report of the New York Bureau of Statistics of Labor shows that +of 8,040 persons who registered for employment in New York city, 6,458 +were men, and 1,582 were women. Of these, the foreign-born numbered 4,804, +of whom 3,674 were men and 1,140 were women. The native-born numbered +3,234, of whom 2,796 were men, and 442 were women. The list included every +trade and profession, from that of day laborer to that of clergyman, from +that of school teacher to that of domestic servant, and showed that in the +city where more women are employed than in any other place, the proportion +of women to men was less than one fifth, and of native American to +foreign-born women two fifths. + +Mr. Brooks would favor suffrage because "in this new career there are +reasons for every whit of protection." He mentions, as proof of woman's +changed attitude as an industrial unit, that the Supreme Courts of +Illinois and California have decided against special legislation for +women. They did so on the ground that "they were now earning their +livelihood under men's conditions, and should not have special legislation +in business relations." If Mr. Brooks thinks that women wish the ballot to +restore the special legislation, he does not know the Suffrage demand for +equality. In England, when the laws were under discussion that forbid the +employment of women more than a certain number of hours, and of children +under certain ages, the Woman Suffrage leaders protested against the +former as an infringement of personal rights and the ability to make +contracts. But the special legislation for business women goes on, +because, after all, the State knows that they are business women, and not +business men, and the Suffrage quarrel in regard to privilege _versus_ +right goes on also. + +Before the Committee of the Constitutional Convention, Mrs. Ecob, of +Albany, said: "You speak of chivalry. We scorn the word! What has your +chivalry done for the weaker sex? Women are the unpaid laborers of the +world--outcasts in government." Mrs. Hood, of Brooklyn, on the same +occasion said: "Who dares insult our American manhood by declaring that +men will be less courteous to mother, wife, and sister, because they are +political equals? Woman's equality in the industrial world has to-day +produced a nobler, better chivalry than was ever conceived by the knights +of old." + +These two Suffrage leaders will have to settle between themselves the +question which they have placed in dispute. It serves to point the moral +of dilemma that attends an attempted adjustment of unnatural claims. +Meantime government is caring for the weak, and chivalry is doing justice. +The Labor Law that went into effect in this State on September 1st +provided that children be classified so that those under fourteen years +should not be employed in mercantile pursuits. Children between the ages +of twelve and fourteen will be permitted to work in vacation, if they can +show that they have attended school through the year. The girls between +fourteen and twenty-one are not to be allowed to work more than ten hours +a day. Their employment before 7 A.M. and after 10 P.M. is forbidden. +Women and children are not allowed to work in basements, without permits +from the Health Board as to the condition of the basement. Seats are to be +provided for woman employees, forty-five minutes given them for luncheon, +and proper lunch and toilet rooms to be secured. Penalties, ranging from a +fine of $20 for the first offence to imprisonment, are prescribed for +violation of the law. In his last report, published in January 1897, the +New York Commissioner of Labor considers the low wages and petty wrongs of +working women and girls in New York City. He advises the formation of +unions among themselves for their better protection. + +Mr. Brooks does not agree with those who claim that possession of the +ballot would raise wages. Mrs. Ames and Dr. Jacobi think it would only +raise them through the indirect influence of the greater respect in which +the worker would be held. This is safe ground again, because it is +debatable; but the domestic servants of those who hold the former opinion +might give them an object-lesson. Unfranchised as the servants are, they +have only to make a threat of leaving to secure better wages. + +Harriette A. Keyser, who was the special Suffrage champion of the working- +woman before the Committee of the Constitutional Convention, gave not one +fact or figure to show that the working-woman, where she had the ballot, +had already been helped by it, or that it was likely to help her, or how +and why it might help her. Among the generalities she uttered was the +following; "But the greatest value of the working-woman, to my mind, is +that without her economic value this present demand for equal suffrage +could never be made. Indeed, the suffrage of the world is due to her. Do I +mean by this that every working-woman in the country sees her own value so +clearly that she demands enfranchisement? I could not say this with truth. +I make this statement irrespective of what any individual working-woman +may think. It is based upon what she is. As through the last half century +the contention for equal rights has continued, the working-woman has been +the great object-lesson. It was not from women of leisure, having all the +rights they want, that inspiration has been received. It has been caught +from the patient worker, healing the sick, writing the book, painting the +picture, teaching the children, tilling the soil, working in the factory, +serving in the household. Every stroke of these workers has been a protest +against a disfranchised individuality." Miss Keyser has mentioned most of +the classes in this country, for, so far as my experience goes, there is +no such thing as a leisure class, in the sense of an idle class, of women. +Women are almost universally industrious, and it is a mistake to suppose +that their early industry in the house was not as much appreciated and +counted in the general fund of work as their more public activity now. It +is well for Miss Keyser to make her estimate of the Suffrage value of the +working-woman one that shall have no reference to the expressed views of +the working-woman herself; because the working-woman seems almost +universally not only unconscious of but indifferent to her attitude as a +great object-lesson in favor of the ballot. But here is something new. +Suffragists have first claimed that there could be no working-woman unless +there was a ballot in woman's hand; then they claimed that, although there +was a working-woman despite the fact that she had not been enfranchised, +she was made by the agitation for the ballot; and now comes Miss Keyser to +say that, not only is the working-woman not due to the ballot, or to +ballot-seeking, but "the suffrage of the world is due to her," for +"without her economic value this present demand for equal suffrage could +never have been made!" Tar baby ain't sayin' nuthin'. + +Dr. Jacobi, in "Common Sense," says: "Whatever may be the personal +privileges of their lot, whatever the legal protection accorded to their +earnings, the public status of such a class remains strictly that of +aliens. At the present moment this vast and constantly growing army of +women industrials constitutes an alien class. The privation for that class +of political right to defend its interests is only masked, but not +compensated, by its numerous inter-relations with those who have rights." +So they are conceded to have personal privileges, and legal protection for +earnings. The alienism is then purely political, and works no hardship but +what Suffragists conceive to be in the mental attitude of the worker. + +Foreign capitalists who own land or plant in the United States are +unfranchised. We have large numbers of men working in trades and +professions who never have been naturalized, but we do not dream that all +these constitute an alien class of industrials. No distinction is made in +business opportunity between the voter and non-voter. Neither is any +social distinction made regarding worker or employer on account of the +relations of either to the ballot. Market value is not measured by +suffrage, except in dishonorable transactions, and the women "with ballots +in their hands" are not the Government's preferred creditors. The men in +the District of Columbia are not conscious of lower wages and industrial +ostracism. Again, Dr. Jacobi says: "The share of women in political rights +and life--imperfect and deferred during the predominance of militarism-- +has become natural, has become inevitable, with the advent of +industrialism, in which they so largely share." + +Industrialism has no more power to change the basis of government than the +abolition movement had when certain advocates of it shouted that it was +"sinful to vote or hold office, because the government was founded upon +physical force and maintained itself by muskets." Industrialism is +bringing into this country some of the gravest problems it has ever met. +The sympathy of the people is on the side of labor that uses honorable +means; but Cleveland and Leadville are among the places that suggest +afresh the fact that industrialism must be kept in order for its own sake, +for the sake of general peace, and for the sake of its increasing ranks of +"alien" women who look to it for "every whit of protection," save that +which their own self-respect and that of public opinion can win them. + +Again, Dr. Jacobi says: "Notwithstanding the repression of women's civil +rights, and their absolute exclusion from even the dream of a political +sphere, the women of France engage more freely than anywhere else in +business and industry." There is a moral here deeper than can be read at a +glance. The first thought suggested is, that industrial success for woman +is not in the least dependent upon the vote. The second is, that +industrial progress does not command the vote. The third is, that American +freedom has worked in the opposite direction from French unstable +republicanism. And the fourth is, that industrious France stands appalled +at the lack of increase of its population. There are many forces that sap +its national life, but perhaps the most conspicuous is the socialistic and +anarchistic tendency of its labor organizations. The woman-suffrage idea +was first openly proclaimed during the French Revolution. In 1851 the +annual Suffrage Convention in this country was called by Paulina Wright +Davis, to meet in Worcester, Mass. Ernestine Rose read to the convention +two letters addressed to that body through her, written by Jeanne Deroine +and Pauline Roland, from a Paris prison. During the revolutionary +movements of 1848, these women had played conspicuous roles. One of them +had attempted to nominate the mayor in her native city, the other to be a +candidate for the Legislative Assembly. They wrote: "Sisters of America! +Your socialist sisters of France are united with you in the vindication of +the right of woman to civil and political equality. We have, moreover, the +profound conviction that only by the power of association based on +solidarity--by the union of the working-classes of both sexes in organized +labor, can be acquired, completely and pacifically, the civil and +political equality of woman, and the social right for all." + +I know the feud, and the grounds for it, between socialism and anarchy. +But both are enemies of the social order, and both are favorers of woman +suffrage. How "pacifically" the labor movement that originated in France +in 1848, and spread throughout Europe, was likely to proceed, we may judge +by its constant outbreaks kindred to the recent bomb-throwing in Paris. In +the German Working-man's Union, Hasenclever, for many years the leading +socialist in the German Reichstag, said: "The Woman Question would be +taken by the developed, or, more correctly speaking, the communistic +state, under its own control, for in this state" (which was to consist of +men and women with equal vote) "when the community bears the obligation of +maintaining the children, and no private capital exists, the woman need no +longer be chained to one man. The bond between the sexes will be merely a +moral one, and if the characters do not harmonize could be dissolved." The +"Social Democrat" of Copenhagen has for mottoes: "All men and women over +twenty-one should vote." "There should be institutions for the proper +bringing up of children." All the communistic and anarchistic labor +organizations in Germany, France, Switzerland, Denmark, and England +proclaim woman suffrage as a prime factor, and the disruption of the +family as its corollary. + +There are many who remember the visit to this country of the socialist, +Dr. Aveling, and his (so-called) wife, the daughter of Karl Marx. His +legal wife had been left in England. Miss Marx said, in reply to the +question of a Chicago lady, that love was the only recognized marriage in +Socialism, consequently no bonds of any kind would be required. Divorces +would be impossible; for when love ceased, separation would naturally +ensue. + +At a meeting of the Woman's Council held in Washington, in 1888, Mrs. +Stanton said: "I have often said to men of the present day that the next +generation of women will not stand arguing with you as patiently as we +have for half a century. The organizations of labor all over the country +are holding out their hands to women. The time is not far distant when, if +men do not do justice to women, the women will strike hands with labor, +with socialists, with anarchists, and you will have the scenes of the +Revolution of France acted over again in this republic." + +Mrs. Stanton Blatch, daughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, in her lecture in +this country two years ago on "The Economic Emancipation of Woman," said +that she rejoiced in every co-operative working-woman's dwelling, because +it was a blow aimed at the isolated home, and she has just repeated in New +York her proposition for the institutional care of children. Alice Hyneman +Rhine, in her article on "Woman's Work in America," says of socialistic +labor, "It aims to benefit woman by recognizing her as a perfect equal of +man, politically and socially; by fixing woman's means of support by the +state so as to render her independent of man." "Freedom," a radical +socialistic newspaper published in Chicago, where Emma Goldman and her ilk +have revealed the true inwardness of such movements, recommends as the +first step "equal rights for all, without distinction of race or sex," and +the abolition of "class rule." Our most radical socialistic Labor National +Convention in New York, this year, had four woman delegates. + +The Knights of Labor who first put "equal pay for equal work" into their +platform, appeared in their late convention, under the lead of Sovereign, +who declared that Gov. Altgeld "was one of the finest types of American +manhood to-day." They seem to be drifting toward that phase of Socialism +to which Alice Hyneman Rhine referred. There are no greater tyrants than +some of the Labor organizations, and one evidence of this is the fact that +they prevent the colored man from doing any work outside of a few of the +least noble occupations. + +With such edged tools as these are our American women playing when they +demand, in the name of democracy, in the name of the family, in the name +of the working-woman, that the word "sex" shall be inserted in the United +States Constitution, and the word "male" be stricken from every State +constitution that now contains it. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +WOMAN SUFFRAGE AND THE PROFESSIONS. + + +The sixth count in the Declaration of Sentiments reads: "He closes against +her all the avenues to wealth and distinction which he considers most +honorable to himself. As a teacher of theology, medicine, or law, she is +not known." + +That statement contains another evidence of the untruthfulness of a half +truth. First, it is an unwarrantable assumption, of which no proof is +offered, that man had closed against woman any avenue to wealth and +distinction, or that he felt toward woman the selfish and monopolizing +spirit implied in such accusation. Second, but three of the avenues, all +of which he was said to have closed against her, are mentioned. Whatever +may be the truth about those three, the no less honorable, although less +arduous, avenues to wealth and distinction were as open to her as to him. +As educator, author, artist, in painting, music, and sculpture, she could +freely attain to the same coveted end. The Suffragists did not decry man's +"monopoly" of the honorable and profitable but severe professions of civil +engineering, seamanship, mining engineering, lighthouse keeping and +inspecting, signal service, military and naval duty, and the like. These, +and the drudgery of the world's business and commerce, man was welcome to +keep. + +But, most of all, this Suffrage indictment contains, as do all the rest, +another tacit untruth when it assumes that woman's work has not in the +past been as honorable to herself and as profitable to the world as has +that of man. By setting up a false standard for achievement, and +attempting to make everything conform to it, the Suffrage movement has +done incalculable harm. It is not progressing to push into an unwonted +place merely because it is unwonted, and because you can push in. It is +progress to enter it in response both to an inward and an outward need. + +When the first Suffrage convention had adopted the Declaration of +Sentiments, Lucretia Mott offered a resolution, which was also adopted, +declaring that "the speedy success of our cause depends upon the zealous +and untiring efforts of men and women for the overthrow of the monopoly of +the pulpit, and for the securing to woman an equal participation with men +in the various trades, professions, and commerce." + +The most remarkable thing about this resolution is, that it was +promulgated by a woman who was at that very time a gifted and eloquent +preacher, so that to her, who cared for it so highly, man had not closed +that avenue to wealth and distinction. As she had a husband to support her +and her children, she was much more free to attain those desirable ends +than most of the ministers who were preaching for humanity's sake and the +gospel's, at salaries ranging from five hundred to two thousand dollars a +year, and who had families to support out of their slender pittance. If +any woman was in a position to "overthrow the monopoly of the pulpit," +surely she was. Stately and beautiful of mien, fervent in spirit, eloquent +in language, one who had learned the Hebrew and Greek that she might read +the Scriptures in the original tongues, what did she lack? Not only was no +pulpit of another faith than hers ever opened to her, but more than half +those of her own form of worship were closed against hearing the inner +voice as interpreted by her. In that schism that rent the Society of +Friends as no other religious body has ever been rent, she threw in her +fortunes, or led others to throw in their fortunes (for she had been +preaching nine years when the division occurred), with that portion that +placed the "inner light" above all Scripture. When the Friends came from +the London meeting to testify against the teachings of the schismatics, +they besought Lucretia Mott to return to the faith of her childhood, but +she resisted from conviction that she was right. Elias Hicks, her leader, +had instigated the members of his congregation to refuse to pay their +taxes to the Government during and following the war of 1812, on the +ground that they represented an encroachment of the secular power on +Christian liberty, and were used to support war, which was sin. Lucretia +Mott preached that "no Christian can consistently uphold a government +based on the sword, or relying on that as an ultimate resort." The country +has always suffered from this doctrine. The Tory Quakers of the Revolution +called publicly upon Friends "to withstand and refuse to submit" "to +instructions and ordinances" not warranted by "that happy Constitution +under which we have long enjoyed tranquillity and peace." Thomas Paine, +whose parents were Friends, in "The Crisis," says: "The common phrase of +these people is, 'Our principles are peace.' To which it may be replied, +'and your practices are the reverse.'" Another striking instance of this +disagreement between principle and practice is seen in Lucretia Mott's +behavior. From the platform where she demanded the ballot for woman, she +proclaimed that all voting was sinful. That bodies of people who so held +should continue to enjoy the Government's protection of themselves and +their property, through the sacrifices made by those who carried on +government by giving willingly their money and their strength, is a proof +of our wonderful freedom. + +Elizabeth Fry and most of the English Friends would not mention the name +of Mrs. Mott. Mrs. Stanton once asked her what she would have done after +the Hicksite faction had been voted out of meeting at the World's +Conventicle of Friends in London, if the spirit had moved her to speak +when the chairman and members had moved that she be silent, and she +answered, "Where the spirit of God is, there is liberty." This is the +liberty of anarchy, and it had its due weight in the Suffrage movement. +Mrs. Stanton, in the course of a eulogy pronounced at Mrs. Mott's funeral, +said: "The 'vagaries' of the Anti-slavery struggle, in which Lucretia Mott +took a leading part, have been coined into law; and the 'wild fantasies' +of the Abolitionists are now the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth +amendments to the National Constitution.... The 'infidel' Hicksite +principles that shocked Christendom are now the cornerstones of the +liberal religious movement in this country." The vagaries of the Anti- +slavery struggle are exactly those that were _not_ coined into law. The +wild fantasies of the Abolitionists were rejected by those whose sober +judgment and steady courage made possible the last constitutional +amendments. And no truer is it that the "infidel" Hicksite principles are +the corner-stones of any genuine movement of Christian liberality. While +the Friends mourn that infidelity and Roman Catholicism have made inroads +upon their progress in some places, they have steadily advanced in the +other direction from that pointed out by Lucretia Mott. Their educated and +paid ministry, their First-day schools, their missions, home and foreign, +their music, and simple but set forms, their reports to London of +"conversion and profession of faith," and their rapid growth where these +things have taken place, all indicate the truth of this. The large meeting +at Swartmore College, in the summer of 1896, is another evidence. + +The proportion of woman preachers to the different denominations is as +follows: The Hicksite-Quakers (as against the orthodox) have the most. So +have the German Methodists (United Brethren) as against the orthodox +Methodists. The Free-Will Baptists, as against the orthodox Baptists, +ordain more woman preachers. The Universalist preceded the Unitarian +church in so doing. The Presbyterian and Congregational churches, as a +body, have taken no steps in that direction. In the Congregational +denomination any separate body of worshippers can ordain whom it sees fit. +The Roman Catholic and Episcopal churches have orders which band women as +religious workers and remove them more or less from the ordinary life of +the world, but they have taken no steps toward ordaining women for the +ministry. + +We may note that the denominations that have been foremost in building +colleges for woman, and in promoting her general advancement in +professions and trades, as well as in social and philanthropic matters, +are the ones whose pulpits she has not entered. They are also those by +which she is most cordially welcomed to speak on all Christian and +philanthropic themes. Where her influence is most broadly felt, she has +not been taken out of the ordinary life that she was meant to share and to +sway. It was from the great denominations that she first crossed the +threshold of home to carry home love and principle to foreign countries. +In missions she has served in every conceivable form of public +benevolence, side by side with man. Real reforms work from within. If the +time comes when the other branches of the Christian Church feel as do a +few at present, that the exercise of the ministerial office is consistent +and appropriate for woman, one that compels no sacrifice of the life and +work that are, and must be, peculiarly her own, the ballot will not be +needed to place her or to keep her in their pulpits. Whatever may be +thought of the profession of the ministry for woman, it must certainly be +acknowledged that it is the one farthest removed from political thought +and action. If any class of women should be glad to be exempted from the +vote, it is the woman preachers. + +In her book, "Common Sense," Dr. Jacobi says: "The profession of medicine +was thrown open to women when, in 1849, the year following the Revolution, +and the passage of the Married Woman's Property Rights Bill, New York +State for the first time, at Geneva, conferred a medical diploma on a +woman, Elizabeth Blackwell. She was, or rather she became, the sister-in- +law of Lucy Stone; and the work of these two women, the one in medicine, +the other for equal suffrage, constituted the two necessary halves of one +idea." + +In 1848, when the first Suffrage convention was held, twelve women were +studying medicine in different parts of the country. Dr. Elizabeth +Blackwell was studying that year in Geneva, and when members of the +convention wrote to congratulate her, she said, in the course of her +reply: "Much has been said of the oppression that woman suffers; man is +reproached with being unjust, tyrannical, jealous. I do not so read human +life." Dr. Blackwell estimates that within ten years of that time three +hundred women had been graduated in medicine. In an address delivered in +1889 before the London Medical School for women in London, Dr. Blackwell +said: "I believe that the department of medicine in which the great and +beneficent influence of women may be specially exerted is that of the +family physician. Not as specialists, but as the trusted guides and wise +counsellors in all that concerns the physical welfare of the family, they +will find their most congenial field of labor." All this was the exact +opposite of the spirit that prevailed in the Association with which Lucy +Stone was identified. She declaimed against man's injustice; and when it +was proposed, after the civil war had taught the power of organization, to +have a constitution and by-laws for the Suffrage movement, Lucy Stone said +that she had felt the "thumb-screws and the soul-screws," and did not wish +to be placed under them again. "Our duty is merely agitation." After a +stormy quarrel, she left to form a new association in New England. +Elizabeth Blackwell's name is conspicuous for its absence from Suffrage +annals. In the letter referred to she wrote: "The exclusion and constraint +woman suffers is not the result of purposed injury or premeditated insult. +It has arisen naturally, without violence, because woman has desired +nothing more, has not felt the soul too large for the body. But when +woman, with matured strength, with steady purpose, presents her lofty +claim, all barriers will give way, and man will welcome, with a thrill of +joy, the new birth of his sister spirit." + +The way in which barriers have fallen, and have been removed by men, in +order that woman may enter the noble profession of medicine, is one of the +strange stories of this half century. The Civil War, which taught us so +much, helped greatly in this. There were some genuine obstacles in the way +of woman's education in medicine, and that they were genuine is proved by +the fact that, as rapidly as arrangements can be made so that woman can +have thorough training by and with her own sex, this is being done. This +trend is in opposition to Suffrage action. Dr. Clemence Lozier, who was so +long at the head of the Suffrage association in New York City, was the +most persistent urger of mixed clinics, and marched in to them at +Bellevue, at the head of her classes, defying the delicate instincts of +both men and women. + +The struggle of the "new" school, which was really as old as Hippocrates, +who said four hundred years before Christ that some remedies acted by the +rule of "contraries," and some by the rule of "similarity," was long and +hard compared with that of the entrance of woman upon the practice of +medicine, although the latter involved sex questions and the former only +forms, and professional prejudice did not die with woman's adoption of it. + +Dr. Jacobi says: "We are perfectly well aware that industrial and +professional competition are entirely different matters from popular +sovereignty. But when we find the same instincts aroused, the same +opposition excited, the same arguments advanced, and the same +determination manifested, by trades unions, to exclude women from trades, +by learned societies to exclude them from professions, by universities to +exclude them from learning, and by voters to exclude them from the polls, +we cannot avoid asking whether the difference in the cases is not balanced +by the identity in the mental attitude of the opponents." The best trades +unions have admitted women to their protective and wage associations, or, +better still, have helped them to form their own; the worst trades unions, +the socialistic and anarchistic, have claimed for them the right to vote. +The learned societies are admitting them professionally as fast as they +make themselves worthy. The men who hold out against their admission to +men's universities are precisely the class of men who have been most +active in assisting to found for them equal colleges of their own, and +they are also the men who are most strenuous against their admission to +the polls. In medicine, while co-education is deemed better than +ignorance, the tendency is to separate the sexes in study as fast as +facilities can be made equal. The opponents of woman's progress and those +of woman suffrage are of opposite classes, and their mental attitudes are +entirely different. How much harm the struggle for "popular sovereignty" +for women has done in hindering the progress of industrial and +professional competition, can be judged somewhat by the success of the +latter and the failure of the former in the highest fields. It is a +significant fact that women do not avail themselves of opportunities open +to them in the professions to the extent that it has been claimed they +would. The medical examination advertised in January, 1896, by the New +York State Civil Service Commission for woman candidates, failed for lack +of applicants, although the salaries of women in the State hospitals range +from $1,000 to $1,500 a year. + +The entrance of woman upon the legal profession raised constitutional +questions as to the enactment of law; and so here, as in the matter of the +school suffrage, we see how carefully republicanism guarded the post at +which must stand the sentinels of liberty. If it might involve law- +enforcement, woman could not practise law or vote on the school question; +but the Supreme Court of the United States decided that "the practising of +any profession violates no law of the Federal Constitution." + +The study of law must prove of great benefit to woman, though here again +it has already been shown that it is possible that the greatest practical +advantage she will derive from entrance into this noble profession will be +from acquiring knowledge of her country's laws, and how to take care of +her own property. Widows and unmarried women have almost invariably placed +their moneyed interests in the hands of a man, when it would have been +better for all concerned that they should have spent some patient thought +on the details of their own affairs. The first woman who was admitted to +the bar in this State (New York) was a teacher in the Albany Normal +College, and she still remains there, and the women's classes for legal +study in New York City have been largely composed of those who had no +intention of claiming admittance to the bar. That women can and do enter +all these professions with credit to themselves, and that they thus +enhance the feeling of pride in their sex, which is a strong impulse with +women, is matter for profound congratulation, and is evidence that the +animus of the Suffrage movement is not that which stirs society. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +WOMAN SUFFRAGE AND EDUCATION. + + +The seventh count in the Suffrage indictment declared: "He has denied her +facilities for obtaining a thorough education, all colleges being closed +against her." + +Among the resolutions passed in the first Suffrage convention was one +demanding: "Equal rights in the universities," and the first petition +presented by Suffrage advocates contained a clause asking that entrance to +men's colleges be obtained for women by legal enactment. We note that this +is far from being a demand for education for women equal to that given to +men in the universities. Men have founded colleges for women, men and +women have worked together in securing for woman every facility and +opportunity for education of the highest grade; but the "barrier of sex" +is not broken down in education. But few of the older colleges for men +admit women, and those few, so far as I have learned from conversation +with members of their faculties, speak of the arrangement as an +experiment, and give the need for economy, combined with a desire to +assist women, as a reason for making that experiment. Meantime the +knocking at men's literary portals by Suffrage advocates has gone on as +vigorously as if women could obtain education in no other way. + +In the first Suffrage convention ever held in Massachusetts these two +resolutions were adopted: "That political rights acknowledge no sex, and +therefore the word 'male' should be stricken from every State +constitution;" and "That every effort to educate woman, until you accord +to her her rights, and arouse her conscience by the weight of her +responsibilities, is futile, and a waste of labor." + +The State in which these sentiments were uttered abounded in fine schools +for girls, among which were Mount Holyoke and Wheaton seminaries. + +A rapid survey of some of the educational conditions that led to the state +of things existing when Suffrage associations were formed, will be in +place. Learning seemed incompatible with worship early in the Christian +era. The faith that worked by love was "to the Jews a stumbling-block, and +to the Greeks foolishness." That great battle between the felt and the +comprehended, which in this era we have named the conflict between science +and religion, was decided in the mind of the apostle to the Gentiles when +he wrote: "We know in part, and we prophesy in part; when that which is +perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away." He recalled +the accusation, "Thou art beside thyself, much learning hath made thee +mad," and he hastened to assure the unlettered fishermen and the simple +and devout women who were followers of Christ, that "all knowledge" was +naught if they had not love; that even faith was vain if it led to the +rejection of the diviner wisdom that a little child could understand. + +The great learning of Augustine and the Fathers brought into the Church +pagan speculations of God and morality, as well as pagan knowledge in art, +science, and literature. The Church became corrupted, and a great outcry +was made against the learning itself, which was falsely supposed to be the +cause of the degeneration of faith. Symonds says that during the Dark Ages +that followed upon this first battle between faith and sight, the meaning +of Latin words derived from the Greek was lost; that Homer and Virgil were +believed to be contemporaries, and "Orestes Tragedia" was supposed to be +the name of an author. Milman says that "at the Council of Florence in +1438, the Pope of Rome and the Patriarch of Constantinople, being +ignorant, the one of Greek, and the other of Latin, discoursed through an +interpreter." It was near the time of the Reformation that a German monk +announced in his convent that "a new language, called Greek, had been +invented, and a book had been written in it, called the New Testament." +"Beware of it," he added, "It is full of daggers and poison." + +But the tradition of the love that book revealed had crept into the heart +of the world, and now awoke. Through what struggles the "spirit of all +truth" promised by Christ was leading, and would lead the world, the +history of civilization can tell. Women shared in some degree the outward +benefits of the Revival of Learning. They became in not a few instances +Doctors of Law and professors of the great universities that sprang up, as +well as teachers, transcribers, and illuminators in the great nunneries. I +could give a long and honorable list of names of woman writers and +artists, in many lands, from Mediaeval to modern times; and one of the +interesting things revealed by such a record would be the number who were +working with, or were directly inspired and helped by, a father or a +brother. The Court contained some women who, like Lady Jane Grey, upheld +the model of purity while acquiring the learning that naturally +accompanied wealth. But elegant letters had again become the associate of +moral and religious corruption in the courts, and the "ignorance of +preaching" arose to combat it, in Cromwell, the Roundheads, the +Dissenters, the Covenanters. + +Yet sound learning was not to die that Christian truth might live. Of the +band of Pilgrims and Puritans that came first to our shores, about one in +thirty was college-bred. While subordinating book-knowledge to piety, +they had learned scarcely less the dangers of ignorance. Their first +college was founded because of "the dread of having an illiterate ministry +to the churches when our ministers shall lie in dust." Charles Francis +Adams says, in regard to the establishment of Harvard College: "The +records of Harvard University show that, of all the presiding officers +during the century and a half of colonial days, but two were laymen, and +not ministers of the prevailing denomination." He further says that "of +all who in early times availed themselves of such advantages as this +institution could offer, nearly half the number did so for the sake of +devoting themselves to the gospel. The prevailing notion of the purpose of +education was attended with one remarkable consequence--the cultivation of +the female mind was regarded with utter indifference." + +It was attended with still another remarkable consequence, the effect of +which is felt up to this hour. Only men who were fitted for a profession +were given a college education. It is well within my memory when it began +to be seriously said: "A college education is good for a boy, whether he +intends to follow a profession or not; it will make him a better business +man, or even a better farmer." The country girl is now, as a rule, better +educated than her brother. It also happened in those earlier days, that +the artist and the musician were expected to attain knowledge by +intuition, save in technical branches. + +The minister was, almost of necessity, like a magistrate in these semi- +religious colonies. The fact of the breaking up into various sects, which +we sometimes incline to look upon with regret as defeating Christian +unity, really saved the essentials of that unity by preventing the +clerical magistrate from establishing a church resting upon state +authority. It was obligatory that the civil rulers should be learned, even +at the expense of those who carried on the business and the home. + +During the first two hundred years of our existence it would have been +almost absurd to expect that women would be extensively educated outside +the home. The country was poor, and struggling with new conditions, and +great financial crises swept over it. There were wars and rumors of wars. +Until after 1812-15 American independence was not an assured fact. +Whatever may be said of the present, woman's place in America then was in +the home, and nobly did she fill that place. That she had not been wholly +uninstructed in even elegant learning, is evidenced by the share she took +in literature and in the discussion of religious and public matters, and +in such personal records as that of Elder Faunce, who eulogized Alice +Southworth Bradford for "her exertions in promoting the literary +improvement and the deportment of the rising generation." Dame schools +were early established for girls, and here were often found the sons of +the farmer and the mechanic. These were established in Massachusetts in +1635. Late in 1700, girls were admitted through the summer to "Latin +schools" where boys were taught in winter, and in 1789 women began to be +associated with men as teachers. In 1771 Connecticut founded a system of +free schools in which boys and girls were taught. In 1794 the Moravians +founded a school for girls at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Here were educated +the sisters of Peter Cooper, the mother of President Arthur, and many +women who became exponents of culture. + +New England began before this to have fine private schools for girls, but +no great step was taken until Miss Hart (afterward Mrs. Willard) had +become so successful with her academy teaching in her native town of +Berlin, Connecticut, and in Hartford, that three States simultaneously +invited her to establish schools within their borders. She went to +Massachusetts, but afterward, at the solicitation of Governor Clinton, of +New York, she removed her school to Troy, in 1821. It was a new departure, +and there was ignorant prejudice to overcome. Governor Clinton, in an +appeal to the legislature for aid, said: "I trust you will not be deterred +by commonplace ridicule from extending your munificence to this +meritorious institution." They were not deterred. An act was passed for +the incorporation of the proposed institute, and another which gave to +female academies a share of the literary fund. The citizens of Troy +contributed liberally, and the success of an effort in woman's high +education was assured. + +As early as 1697 the Penn Charter School was founded, and it has lived +until to-day. Provision was made "at the cost of the people called +Quakers," for "all children and servants, male and female, the rich to be +instructed at reasonable rates, the poor to be maintained and schooled for +nothing." They also provided for "instruction for both sexes in reading, +writing, work, languages, arts and sciences." The boys and girls have been +taught separately, the girls' school being much behind the boys', neither +Latin nor other ancient language forming a part of their curriculum. +Friends are just beginning to discuss giving higher education to girls. +This is a fact especially significant in our discussion, because it has +always been claimed that the Quaker doctrine that "souls have no sex" led +them to place woman on an "equality" with man before other sects had +thought of allowing that they were equals. Lucretia Mott, Susan Anthony, +Abby Kelley, and a great body of the women who adopted the resolution that +set forth the uselessness of educating woman until she could vote, and who +clamored for her entrance to men's institutions, were all of this sect +that has kept its women generally far behind in the acquisition of +knowledge. + +In 1845 Mrs. Willard was invited to address the Teachers' Convention that +met in Syracuse. She prepared a paper in which she set forth the idea +that, "women, now sufficiently educated, should be employed and furnished +by the men as committees, charged with the minute cares and supervision of +the public schools," but declined the honor tendered her of delivering it +in person. Sixty gentlemen from the convention visited her at the hotel, +and, at their earnest request, she read the essay, which met with their +emphatic approval of the plan she proposed. The employment of women in the +common schools, and the system of normal schools, were projected by her. + +A Teachers' Convention was held in Rochester in 1852. Miss Anthony, though +a teacher, was not in attendance upon it, but she records that she went in +and listened for a few hours to a discussion of the causes that led to +their profession being held in less esteem than those of the doctor, +lawyer, and minister. In her judgment, the kernel of the matter was not +alluded to, so she arose and said: "Mr. President." She records that "at +length President Davies stepped to the front and said in a tremulous, +mocking tone," "What will the lady have?" "I wish, sir," she said, "to +speak to the question." "What is the pleasure of the convention?" asked +Mr. Davies. A gentleman moved that she be heard; another seconded the +motion; whereupon, she records, "a discussion, pro and con, followed, +lasting full half an hour, when a vote was taken of the men only, and +permission was granted by a small majority." She adds that it was lucky +for her that the thousand women crowding that hall could not vote on the +question, for they would have given a solid "No." The president then +announced "The lady can speak." "It seems to me, gentlemen," said she, +"that none of you quite comprehend the cause of the disrespect of which +you complain. Do you not see that, so long as society says a woman is +incompetent to be a lawyer, minister, or doctor, but has ample ability to +be a teacher, every man of you who chooses this profession tacitly +acknowledges that he has no more brains than a woman? Would you exalt your +profession, exalt those who labor with you. Would you make it more +lucrative, increase the salaries of the women engaged in the noble work of +educating our future Presidents, Senators, and Congressmen." + +Several thoughts arise in regard to this scene, which was so strongly in +contrast with the conduct of Mrs. Willard or any of the great educators. +Miss Anthony gave no reason for her belief that the entrance of woman upon +the other professions would raise either the status or the wages of those +engaged in the teacher's profession, and as a matter of fact they have not +done so. It was not the society that cast scorn at woman's "lack of +brains" which assisted to remove the natural prejudice against her +assuming duties that had been deemed unsuited to her physique and her +necessary work. + +Meantime, one year before the Rochester meeting was held, the first +college for women had been chartered at Auburn, New York, under the name +of "Auburn Female University." In 1853 it was transferred to Elmira, and +it was formally opened in 1855. It was placed under the care of the +Congregational Church, but its charter required that it should have +representative trustees from five other denominations. Its course of study +for the degree of A. B. was essentially the same that was then pursued in +the men's colleges of the State. It was expected to rely upon endowment, +which put woman's education upon a new and more secure footing. + +Suffrage leaders lose no opportunity to represent the Church as an enemy +to woman's advancement. Nothing can be further from the truth; and in +striking evidence stand the colleges, which, while unsectarian in spirit +and in method, have been established and cared for by special religious +denominations. Dr. Jacobi, in her book "Common Sense," takes up the tale +and says: "The Mount Holyoke Seminary, the immediate successor of that at +Troy, was opened in 1837 by Miss Lyon, in spite of the opposition of the +clergy." Many besides the clergy were opposed to the plan for which Miss +Lyon was endeavoring to raise money. Her idea that the entire domestic +work of the establishment could be done by pupils and teachers, was +thought unwise and hopeless. In that noble school, where thousands of +women have been educated, a great number have become missionaries. When a +Suffrage convention in session in Worcester wrote to Miss Lyon, asking her +to interest herself in the wrongs of her sex, she answered, "I cannot +leave my work." Neither was Vassar College founded from any impulse or +suggestion of Suffrage agitators, but in a spirit exactly the opposite. +The real impetus to its founding came from Milo Parker Jewett, who was +born in Vermont in 1808, and was graduated at Dartmouth College and at +Andover Theological Seminary. He was active in the formation of the +common-school system of Ohio, and in 1839 he founded The Judson Female +Institute in Marion, Alabama. He established a seminary for girls in +Poughkeepsie in 1855. He had studied law, and became the friend and legal +adviser of Matthew Vassar, who, being unmarried, was casting about for a +method of disposing of his fortune. He suggested to Mr. Vassar an endowed +college for women, and visited the universities and libraries of Europe +with a plan of organization in mind. Mr. Vassar gladly accepted this great +enlargement upon an idea that had lain dormant in his own mind, and Vassar +College was founded, Dr. Jewett becoming its first president in 1862. + +I may claim to have been beside the cradle of Vassar College; for when Dr. +Jewett resigned the presidency in 1864, my father named the successor who +was appointed, Dr. John H. Raymond, his life-long friend. Dr. Raymond came +to Rochester to discuss a plan of work, and, knowing my father's interest, +I was on tiptoe to hear about the new college. At my earnest solicitation, +he and Dr. Raymond and Prest. Anderson permitted me to be present at their +discussions. I learned to comprehend the value of womanliness to the world +by the estimate that those noble educators put upon it. It was evident +that they were arranging for those for whose minds they felt respect. They +made no foolish remarks about the superiority, inferiority, or equality of +the sexes, and had no contempt to throw upon the old education of tutor, +and library, and young ladies' seminary. They did not sneer at the "female +mind," but they did talk of the feminine mind as of something as distinct +in its essence from the masculine mind as the feminine form is distinct in +its outlines. To "preserve womanliness" was a task they felt they must +fulfil, or the women for whose good they labored would one day call them +to account. The dictum so frequently in the mouths of Suffrage leaders, +"There is no sex in brain," would have been abhorrent to them. In their +view, there was as much sex in brain as in hand; and the education that +did not, through cultivation, emphasize that fact, would be a lower and +not a higher product. They laid that intellectual corner-stone in love, +and in the faith that the same womanly spirit which, when there was not +college education enough to go round, had said, "Give it to the boys, +because their work must be public," would find, through the glad return +the boys were making, a way to teach the world still higher lessons of +womanly character and influence. Since that time, college after college +has arisen without a dream on the part of the founders, faculties, or +students that "every effort to educate woman, until you accord to her the +right to vote, is futile and a waste of labor," and it may well be that +the women educated in these colleges will decide that, because political +rights do acknowledge sex, therefore the word "male" should not be +stricken from any State constitution. + +Before the committee of the New York State Constitutional Convention in +1894, Mr. Edward Lauterbach, who was arguing in favor of woman suffrage, +said: "It was only after the establishment of the Willard School at Troy, +only after its noble founder, believing that women and men were formed in +the same mould, successfully tried the experiment of educating women in +the higher branches, that steps for higher education became generally +taken." If Mr. Lauterbach imagines that Mrs. Willard was in the most +distant way an advocate of woman's doing the same work as man in the same +way, he is unfamiliar with her life and work. Mrs. Willard, in setting +forth her ideal of woman's education, said "Education should be adapted to +female character and duties. To do this would raise the character of +man.... Why may not housewifery be reduced to a system as well as the +other arts? If women were properly fitted for instruction, they would be +likely to teach children better than the other sex; they could afford to +do it cheaper; and men might be at liberty to add to the wealth of the +nation by any of the thousand occupations from which women are necessarily +debarred." Old-fashioned wisdom, but choicely good. Mr. Lauterbach further +said: "What wonder that, being so fully equipped in every mental +attribute, in every intellectual qualification, they will be able not only +to cast a vote but to take practical part in the administration of the +government?" + +A female Solon would be a woman still, and in a democracy the intellectual +is not the only qualification needed. This certainly was the belief of +Mrs. Willard, and in 1868, when the Suffrage leaders were holding a +convention in Washington, and were urging that Congress should pass a +sixteenth amendment admitting women to suffrage, Almira Lincoln Phelps, +sister of Mrs. Willard, herself an educator and an author of text-books, +wrote to Isabella Beecher Hooker: "Hoping you will receive kindly what I +am about to write, I will proceed without apologies. I have confidence in +your nobleness of soul, and that you know enough of me to believe in my +devotion to the best interests of woman. I can scarcely realize that you +are giving your name and influence to a cause which, with some good, but, +as I think, misguided women, numbers among its advocates others with loose +morals.... If we could with propriety petition the Almighty to change the +condition of the sexes, and let men take a turn in bearing children and in +suffering the physical ailments peculiar to women, which render them unfit +for certain positions and business, why, in this case, if we really wish +to be men, and thought God would change the established order, we might +make our petition; but why ask Congress to make us men? Circumstances drew +me from the quiet domestic life while I was yet young, but success in +labors which involved publicity, and which may have been of advantage to +society, was never considered as an equivalent to my own heart for such a +loss of retirement. In the name of my sainted sister, Emma Willard, and of +my friend Lydia Sigourney, and, I think I might say, in the name of the +women of the past generation who have been prominent as writers and +educators (the exception may be made of Mary Wollstonecraft, Frances +Wright, and a few licentious French writers) in our own country and in +Europe, let me urge the high-souled and honorable of our sex to turn their +energies into that channel which will enable them to act for the true +interests of their sex." + +In a woman's club, last winter, a New York teacher, Miss Helen Dawes +Brown, a graduate of Vassar College, founder of the Woman's University +Club and also one of the founders of Barnard College, in a speech said in +part: "The young girl who doesn't dance, who doesn't play games, who can't +skate and can't row, is a girl to be pitied. She is losing a large part of +what Chesterfield calls the 'joy and titivation of youth.' If our young +girl has learned to be good, teach her not to disregard the externals of +goodness. Let our girls, in college and out, learn to be agreeable. A +girl's education should, first of all, be directed to fitting her for the +things of home. We talk of woman as if the only domestic relations were +those of wife and mother. Let us not forget that she is also a +granddaughter, a daughter, a sister, an aunt. I should like to see her +made her best in all these characters, before she undertakes public +duties. The best organization in the world is the home. Whatever in the +education of girls draws them away from that, is an injury to +civilization." + +At the close of an article in the "Outlook," written by Elizabeth Fisher +Read, of Smith College, she said, speaking of their last adaptation of +athletics: "From the beginning, the policy of Smith College has been, not +to duplicate the means of development offered in men's colleges, but to +provide courses and methods of study that should do for women what the +men's courses did for them. Emphasis has been put, not on the resemblances +between men and women, but rather on the differences. The effort has not +been to turn out new women, capable of doing anything man can do, from +walking thirty miles to solving the problems of higher mathematics. +Instead of this, the college has tried to develop its students along +natural womanly lines, not along the lines that would naturally be +followed in training men." + +This sounds strangely like Mrs. Willard, who would be the first to rejoice +in the new education and in the old spirit that it can develop. Of course +Suffrage claims to have the same end in view. Every college woman must +decide for herself where she will stand on the question. So far, there +never has been any open affiliation between the colleges and the Suffrage +movement. We wait to hear a final verdict. + +A contributor to the Suffrage department of the Woman's Edition of the +Rochester "Post-Express," March 26, 1896, said: "Will Rochester give to +its daughters the same advantages as to its sons, or will it say to the +girls who have no money to leave home and seek in Smith and Wellesley the +culture they cannot procure here: 'You cannot be thoroughly educated; you +have no money; you can have no education; sit and spin; bake and brew--but +don't bother about higher education,' or will the University of Rochester +recognize the one splendid opportunity that awaits it, the one last chance +to take its proper place and become all that the highest American +standards demand for a University?" + +The time has not yet fully come when these same sentimentalists shall say +to the faculty and trustees of Vassar, Wellesley and Smith: "Will you not +give to the boys of Poughkeepsie, Northhampton, and Wellesley the same +advantages as to the girls? Or will you say to them: 'You cannot be +thoroughly educated; you have no money; you can have no education; work in +the shop or on the farm, but don't bother about higher education.'" This +is Suffrage logic, and there is no more reason why the educational +institutions in which men study from the age of eighteen to twenty-two +should be invaded by women of that age, than why women's institutions +should be invaded by men. Yet this would be the destruction of our women's +colleges. When Miss Anthony headed a delegation that went bodily to force +co-education on Rochester University, she was told that classes open to +women had been connected with the college for years. + +The kind of education best suited to the idea of Suffrage is a training in +political history and present political issues; but the women who have +talked loudly and vaguely of the right of suffrage for years have been the +last to present such knowledge. I have read their "History," attended +their conventions, glanced at their magazines, but never have come upon +the discussion of a single public issue. I think those most familiar with +it will bear me out if I make the statement that their principal +periodical, "The Woman's Journal," edited by Mary A. Livermore, Julia Ward +Howe, Mr. Blackwell, and Alice Stone Blackwell, has not contained any +presentations of questions of public policy in the past ten years. + +Those whose names are signed to the Suffrage Woman's Bible, and who are +therefore responsible for that disgraceful effusion, have little right to +claim to be intelligent instructors of their sex. With an ignorance that +is monumental, Frances Ellen Burr glories in the fact that "the Revising +Committee refer to a woman's translation of the Bible as their ultimate +authority for the Greek, Latin, and Hebrew text," and they add that "Julia +Smith, this distinguished scholar," is the only person, man or woman, who +ever made a translation of the Bible without help. They say: "Wycliff made +a translation from the Vulgate assisted by Nicholas of Hereford. He was +not sufficiently familiar with Hebrew and Greek to translate from those +tongues. Coverdale's translation was not done alone. Tyndale, in his +translation, had the assistance of Frye, of William Roye, and also of +Miles Coverdale. Julia Smith translated the whole Bible absolutely alone, +without consultation with any one"! Again they say, "King James appointed +fifty-four men of learning to translate the Bible. Seven of them died, and +forty-seven carried the work on. Compare this corps of workers with one +little woman performing the Herculean task without one suggestion or word +of advice from mortal man "! Yes, compare it! Uncultured Julia Smith, +stirred by the Millerite prophecies, did the best she could to enlighten +her own mind, and should be honored for so doing; but what is to be said +of the women who in this day, in cool print, are willing to show that they +have no comprehension of her grotesque errors or of the difficulties that +beset a real scholar in his noble task? Protest at woman's educational +deprivation comes with ill-grace from those who have thus revealed their +own lack of knowledge of the oldest literature in the world, the model of +poetry and prose, the guardian of the purity of our English speech. + +Educated women desire that woman should do all that strength and time +allow in the care of the public schools. The school suffrage ought to be a +boon for them. But it does not, so far, look as if women could make it so. +The figures of the school vote of women in Connecticut, for three years, +occasion serious question whether the use of the ballot is the way in +which woman is to effect anything. In Staten Island, ignorance in women +voted out education, and a tremendous effort had to be made to vote it in +again. The number of men who voted at the last general election in +Connecticut was about 164,000. The women outnumber the men, but the +following table represents the school vote in the State of Emma Willard. +It certainly does not represent the amount of interest taken in education, +nor in the common schools: + + COUNTIES. 1893. 1894. 1895. + + Hartford. 1293 1186 689 + New Haven. 973 949 570 + New London. 364 873 185 + Fairneld. 273 198 126 + Windham 176 182 148 + Litchfield 159 85 50 + Middlesex 60 136 101 + Tolland 372 137 37 + +This gives the results from all but three or four towns in the State. +Aside from any other considerations, the uncertainty attending the vote of +an element whose first call is elsewhere than at the polls, is a menace to +the welfare of the schools as well as of republican institutions. + +One of the grievances of the Suffrage leaders lay in the fact that the +literary women of the country would express no sympathy with their +efforts. Poets and authors in general were denounced. Gail Hamilton, who +had the good of woman in her heart, who was better informed on public +affairs than perhaps any woman in the United States, and whose trenchant +pen cut deep and spared not, always reprobated the cause. Mrs. Stowe stood +aloof, and so did Catherine Beecher, though urged to the contrary course +by Henry Ward Beecher and Isabella Beecher Hooker. In a letter to Mrs. +Cutler, Catherine Beecher said: "I am not opposed to women's speaking in +public to any who are willing to hear, nor am I opposed to women's +preaching, sanctioned as it is by a prophetic apostle--as one of the +millennial results. Nor am I opposed to a woman's earning her own +independence in any lawful calling, and wish many more were open to her +which are now closed. Nor am I opposed to the organization and agitation +of women, as women, to set forth the wrongs suffered by great multitudes +of our sex, which are multiform and most humiliating. Nor am I opposed to +women's undertaking to govern boys and men--they always have, and they +always will. Nor am I opposed to the claim that women have equal rights +with men. I rather claim that they have the sacred superior rights that +God and good men accord to the weak and defenceless, by which they have +the easiest work, the most safe and comfortable places, and the largest +share of all the most agreeable and desirable enjoyments of this life. My +main objection to the Woman-Suffrage organization is this, that a wrong +mode is employed to gain a right object. The right object sought is, to +remedy the wrongs and relieve the sufferings of great multitudes of our +sex; the wrong mode is that which aims to enforce by law, instead of by +love. It is one which assumes that man is the author and abettor of all +these wrongs, and that he must be restrained and regulated by +constitutions and laws, as the chief and most trustworthy methods. I hold +that the fault is as much, or more, with women than with men, inasmuch as +we have all the power we need to remedy the wrongs complained of, and yet +we do not use it for that end. It is my deep conviction that all +reasonable and conscientious men of our age, and especially of our +country, are not only willing but anxious to provide for the good of our +sex. They will gladly bestow all that is just, reasonable, and kind, +whenever we unite in asking in the proper spirit and manner. In the half a +century since I began to work for the education and relief of my sex, I +have succeeded so largely by first convincing intelligent and benevolent +women that what I aimed at was right and desirable, and then securing +their influence with their fathers, brothers, and husbands, and always +with success. Why not take the shorter course, and ask to have the men do +for us what we might do for ourselves if we had the ballot? Now if women +are all made voters, it will be their duty to vote, and also to qualify +themselves for that duty. But already women have more than they can do +well in all that appropriately belongs to them, and, to add the civil and +political duties of men, would be deemed a measure of injustice and +oppression by those who are opposed." + +Miss Beecher, like Mrs. Willard and Mrs. Phelps, made text-books for the +use of her own seminaries, and her Arithmetic, and Mental and Moral +Philosophy, and Applied Theology, were among the educational forces of her +day. It is one of the significant signs of the times that science and +education, as well as philanthropy, are occupying themselves just now with +childhood and motherhood and housewifery. Mrs. Willard's high ideal of +womanliness is beginning to be set forth by the electric light of modern +thought. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +WOMAN SUFFRAGE AND THE CHURCH. + + +The eighth count in the Suffrage indictment reads: "He allows her in +Church, as well as in State, but a subordinate position, claiming +Apostolic authority for her exclusion from the ministry, and, with some +exceptions, from any public participation in the affairs of the Church." + +More than thirty years later than this, Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony, and +Mrs. Gage wrote in the preface to their "History of Woman Suffrage:" +"American men may quiet their consciences with the delusion that no such +injustice exists in this country as in Eastern nations. Though, with the +general improvement in our institutions, woman's condition must inevitably +have improved also, yet the same principle that degrades her in Turkey +insults her here. Custom forbids a woman there to enter a mosque, or call +the hour for prayers; here it forbids her a voice in Church councils or +State legislatures.... The Church, too, took alarm, knowing that with the +freedom and education acquired in becoming a component part of the +Government, woman would not only outgrow the power of the priesthood, and +religious superstitions, but would also invade the pulpit, interpret the +Bible anew from her own standpoint, and claim an equal voice in all +ecclesiastical councils. With fierce warnings and denunciations from the +pulpit, and false interpretations of Scripture, women have been +intimidated and misled, and their religious feelings have been played upon +for their more complete subjugation. While the general principles of the +Bible are in favor of the most enlarged freedom and equality of the race, +isolated texts have been used to block the wheels of progress in all +periods; thus bigots have defended capital punishment, intemperance, +slavery, polygamy, and the subjection of woman. The creeds of all nations +make obedience to man the corner-stone of her religious character. +Fortunately, however, more liberal minds are now giving us higher and +purer expositions of the Scriptures." + +It is fifteen years since these statements were made, and we have now the +first instalment of "the Bible interpreted anew from her own standpoint," +which presumably issues, in their view, from more liberal minds, and is +higher and purer than the old one. In the Introduction to that Suffrage +Woman's Bible (which is as yet only a commentary on the Pentateuch), Mrs. +Stanton says: "From the inauguration of the movement for woman's +emancipation the Bible has been used to hold her in her' divinely +appointed sphere' prescribed by the Old and New Testaments. The canon and +civil law, Church and State, priests and legislators, all political +parties and religious denominations, have alike taught that woman was made +after man, of man, and for man,--an inferior being, subject to man. +Creeds, codes, Scriptures, and statutes are all based on this idea. The +fashions, forms, ceremonies, and customs of society, church ordinances, +and discipline, all grow out of this idea.... So perverted is the +religious element in her nature, that with faith and works she is the +chief support of the Church and Clergy,--the very powers that make her +emancipation impossible." + +I know that many believers in Suffrage are also believers in the Bible and +in denominational Christianity. Mrs. Helen Montgomery says, in the Woman's +edition of the Rochester "Post-Express," that one reason for her favorable +consideration of it is, that "Two-thirds of the membership of the +Christian church cannot express their conviction at the polls, since women +may not vote." "Much of the callousness of politicians to church opinion," +she adds, "comes from the knowledge that that opinion is backed by few +votes." I also know that many of those who disbelieve in Suffrage may also +disbelieve in the Bible, the clergy, and the Church. I further recognize +the fact that the church and religion are not synonymous terms. I have no +attacks to make, and no special pleading to do. I am discussing the +question of Suffrage as I find it in the writing and the speech of its +proposers and its present conspicuous advocates. Each American woman has +this mighty problem before her, and she must settle it according to her +own conscience and best enlightenment. + +Mrs. Stanton admits with shame that woman is one of the chief supporters +of the Church. Mrs. Montgomery says with delight that she forms two-thirds +of the Christian Church. Individual members of Suffrage organizations may +be in sympathy with Christianity, or against it; but the movement itself +cannot be on both sides of this question. What is its record? I will +endeavor to trace it, and will then, as best I may, attempt to say a few +words upon the general subject of the "subordination of woman." + +In the course of the first clause of their accusation, the women say: +"Claiming Apostolic authority for her exclusion from the ministry." In +view of the fact that Paul frequently alludes to the teaching and +ministrations of women, it has come to be generally thought among +Christian scholars, I believe, that this injunction that they "keep +silence in the churches," referred to the propriety of their conduct in +the moral,--or rather the immoral,--atmosphere by which the Church at +Corinth was surrounded. This seems reasonable, because it may be observed +that, in writing to Timothy, who was in Macedonia, to Titus, who was in +Crete, and to the Church at Ephesus, while he repeats his general +injunctions of woman's submission to man, and especially to her husband, +he says nothing relative to her public work in the church. But if Paul had +been writing to the church in New England, in 1634, and in New York in +1774, his injunction to silence might well have been applied to the first +woman preachers to whom Americans were called upon to listen. When Anne +Hutchinson, in Boston, preached that "the power of the Holy Spirit +dwelleth perfectly in every believer, and the inward revelations of her +own spirit, and the conscious judgment of her own mind are of authority +paramount to any word of God," she shook the young colony to its +foundation, as no man had shaken it. The militia that had been ordered to +the Pequot war refused to march, because she had proclaimed their chaplain +to be "under a covenant of works, and not under a covenant of grace." Her +influence, and not her ballot, if she had one, threatened anarchy in the +state, and caused a schism in the church such as might have crushed out +the life from the infant body to which Paul was writing. + +In 1774 appeared the next public woman preacher, Ann Lee. She proclaimed +that God was revealed a dual being, male and female, to the Jews; that +Jesus revealed to the world God as a Father; and that she,--Ann Lee, +"Mother Ann,"--was God's revelation of the Mother, "the bearing spirit of +the creation of God." She founded the sect of Shakers, whose main articles +of belief, besides the one above mentioned, were: community of goods; non- +resistance to force, even in self-defence; the sinfulness of all human +authority, and consequently the sinfulness of participation in any form of +government; absolute separation of the sexes, and consequently no marriage +institution. Her mission as "the Christ of the Second Appearing," began +with her announcement of God's, wrath upon all marriage, and the public +renunciation of her own. In New York, as in New England, her proclamations +against government and war tended directly to anarchy, and in the +momentous year 1776 she was for that reason imprisoned in Poughkeepsie, +whence she was released by Governor Clinton's pardon. + +The next pulpitless preacher, in the succession we are considering, +appeared in this country in 1828. Her name was Frances Wright. She was a +person of totally different mind and methods from Anne Hutchinson and Ann +Lee. She was professedly an enemy of religion. Anne Hutchinson attacked +church and state in the name of Christian human perfection. Ann Lee +attacked church and state in the name of woman; she preached communism and +separation of the sexes in the name of Christ; she taught the abolition of +marriage. Frances Wright preached communism and sex license in the name of +irreligion. In opening the columns of the "Free Inquirer" to discussion, +in New York, in 1828, she said: "Religion is true--and in that case the +conviction of its truth should dictate every human word and govern every +sublunary action,--or it is a deception. If it is a deception, it is not +useless only, it is mischievous; it is mischievous by its idle terrors; it +is mischievous by its false morality; it is mischievous by its hypocrisy; +by its fanaticism; by its dogmatism; by its threats; by its hopes; by its +promises; and last, though not least, by its waste of public time and +public money." While deciding that it was a deception, she revealed the +evil results to which abandonment of all faith can lead a woman with a +clever brain and a fearless tongue. She constantly denounced religion as +the source of all injustice and bigotry and of the "enslavement of women." + +The editors of the "Suffrage History" say: "As early as 1828 the standard +of the Christian party in politics was openly unfurled. Frances Wright had +long been aware of its insidious efforts, and its reliance upon women for +its support. Ignorant, superstitious, devout, woman's general lack of +education made her a fitting instrument for the work of thus undermining +the republic. Having deprived her of her just rights, the country was now +to find in woman its most dangerous foe. Frances Wright lectured that +winter in the large cities of the western and middle States, striving to +rouse the nation to the new danger which threatened it. The clergy at +once, became her most bitter opponents. The cry of 'infidel' was started +on every side, though her work was of vital importance to the country and +undertaken from the purest philanthropy." + +It was high time that a Christian and a non-Christian party in politics +should unfurl a banner; for to the dauntless courage of the land from +which she came--Scotland--she added the polished manner of the country +from which came D'Arusmont, the husband from whom she was soon parted. To +the zeal of the Covenanter, the moral blackness of the infidel, and the +political creed of the Commune, she united the doctrine of Free Love. As +she set these forth with blandishments of speech and manner, the country +did indeed find in this woman a most dangerous foe. When "Fanny Wright +societies" sprang up in New York and the West, horror might well be felt +by lovers of the Republic. + +Lucretia Mott was the next public preacher in this succession. Pure in +personal character, lofty in spirit, winning in address, she took for her +motto, "Truth for Authority, not Authority for Truth." As authority for +that truth, she took Elias Hicks. + +Dr. Jacobi, in "Common Sense," says: "The abolitionists were declared to +have set aside the laws of God when they allowed women to speak in public: +and, by a pastoral letter, the Congregational churches of Massachusetts +were directed to defend themselves against heresy, by closing their doors +to the innovators. The Methodists denounced the Garrisonian societies as +no-government, no-Sabbath, no-church, no-Bible, no-marriage, women's +rights societies." Not the Methodists alone, but the Congregationalists, +the Presbyterians, the Episcopalians, the Baptists, the Unitarians, the +Universalists, and the Quakers so denounced that faction of them in which +culminated many of the doctrines of Anne Hutchinson, Ann Lee, Frances +Wright, and Lucretia Mott. + +In an appeal to the women of New York, in 1860, signed by Elizabeth Cady +Stanton, Lydia Mott, Ernestine Rose, Martha C. Wright, and Susan B. +Anthony, we read: "The religion of our day teaches that, in the most +sacred relations of the race, the woman must ever be subject to the man; +that in the husband centres all power and learning; that the difference in +position between husband and wife is as vast as that between Christ and +the Church; and woman struggles to hold the noble impulses of her nature +in abeyance to opinions uttered by a Jewish teacher, which, alas! the mass +believe to be the will of God." + +In 1895, among the names of those responsible for the Suffrage Woman's +Bible, we find three to which the title "Rev." is prefixed. The opening +commentary on the first verses of Genesis, where the creation of man is +described, says: "Instead of three male personages, as generally +represented, a Heavenly Father, Mother, and Son would seem more rational. +The first step in the elevation of woman to her true position, as an equal +factor in human progress, is the cultivation of the religious sentiment in +regard to her dignity and equality, the recognition by the rising +generation of an ideal Heavenly Mother, to whom their prayers should be +addressed, as well as to a Father." Here is Ann Lee's doctrine revived +with a mocking suggestion that savors more of Frances Wright than of its +poor, half-crazed author. The soul-sufficiency of Ann Hutchinson, the +spiritual anarchy of Lucretia Mott, the infidelity and the veiled +coarseness of Frances Wright, have all found fit setting in this +commentary on the Pentateuch. I know that Miss Anthony repudiates the +Suffrage Woman's Bible in the name of the Association of which she is +President. It certainly does not represent the faith or the culture or the +doctrines of many who belong to that body; but she cannot really repudiate +it for herself or for them. It was promised in the History of which she is +co-editor, it was foreshadowed in her circular quoted above, as well as in +innumerable speeches of hers in convention. Those Christian and +philanthropic bodies that have attached themselves to the Suffrage +movement have this book to account for and with. Whatever they may +personally decide to think or say of it, it is the consummate blossom of +the spirit of the Suffrage movement, and the names it bears upon its +title-page represent the varied classes that have worked for the political +enfranchisement of woman. By the world outside it will so be dealt with. + +Few movements have been started, especially among women, that did not +professedly stand upon high moral and religious ground. Fourierism was +superhuman in its intention,--in this country, at least. Free-thinking +hopes to deliver the soul from the bondage of superstition in all +religion. Mormonism was founded as "the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- +Day Saints." Communism at Oneida was professedly built upon the doctrine +of human perfection in Christian love. The disaster to the soul is in +proportion to the amount of perversion of a living faith. Every movement +must be judged, not by what its advocates suppose themselves to believe, +but by that which time proves they do believe. + +But to return to the Suffrage charge. "American men may quiet their +consciences with the delusion that no such injustice exists in this +country as in Eastern nations. Though, with the general improvement in our +institutions, woman's condition must inevitably have improved also, yet +the same principle that degrades her in Turkey insults her here." American +men _may_ quiet their consciences, while striving to enlighten them +further. The answer to Mohammedanism is Turkey. The answer to Christianity +is America. Ceremonial uncleanness is absolutely unlike religious and +social orderliness in the distribution of duties. How came there to be +"general improvement in our institutions?" There has been no improvement +in Turkey, in China, in India, or in Japan, except such as is creeping +back from the Christendom of which these Suffragists speak with a sneer. +Freedom and education have not been appreciably advanced by "woman's +becoming a component part of the government" in any land. The lands where +she has the most apparent governmental control are the ones that are least +educated and least free among those of modern civilization. + +The church is an ever-growing body, and its clergy hold widely differing +beliefs. The Egyptian priesthood guarded the sacred mysteries and ruled +the state. Through the utmost that natural religion can do for man, they +had gleaned the secret of a Supreme Maker and Ruler of the universe. +Moses, who was "learned in all their wisdom," led the first exiles across +the sea to find "freedom to worship God," and, from that day to this, the +ministers of religion have stood as public guard over the mysteries of +faith and, in the beginnings of each civilization, have ruled the state. +Whenever they have forgotten the lesson that Moses taught, the lesson that +Paul more clearly taught, that to God alone is any soul responsible, they +have proved stumbling-blocks to progress. It is true that religious +bigots, as Suffrage writers say, have "defended capital punishment, +intemperance, slavery, polygamy, and the subjection of woman." But capital +punishment is defended by many besides bigots. Intemperance finds not only +its strongest but its most effective foes in the Christian ministry and +the Christian church. Slavery in our country rent in twain several great +religious bodies. James G. Birney says that "probably nine-tenths of the +Abolitionists were church-members." With polygamy came woman's subjection +and woman suffrage into our free States. And the bigots outside the +Christian ministry and church must share the same condemnation with any +who, professing freedom, have yet forgotten the injunction of the Bible +and the Christ. + +"She would invade the pulpit." Invasion seems a strange word to use in +regard to woman's entrance upon one of the highest of human duties. A +pulpitless teacher she is and always has been. Missionary women have +taught multitudes of beings. The Salvation lassie has no thought of +invasion, or of self-exaltation, when she leads the service of a thousand +souls; and I am not willing to believe that a single woman who has entered +the regular ministry has any more. It is the spirit of Suffrage that looks +upon woman's advance as an attack. + +But times have changed, say Suffrage leaders. Mrs. Cornelia K. Hood, in +her report of the King's County Suffrage work for 1895, says: "A circular +letter was addressed to all the clergymen known to be friends, asking them +that a sermon might be preached by them in favor of woman suffrage. This +request met with a liberal response, and many able addresses were made on +the Sunday morning set for that purpose." In her report of the Suffrage +campaign in New York city in the winter of 1895-96, Dr. Jacobi says, +speaking of the parlor meetings: "Several prominent clergymen joined us-- +Mr. Rainsford, the Rev. Arthur Brooks, Mr. Percy Grant, Mr. Eaton, Mr. +Leighton Williams." In referring to the last regular meeting of the County +Suffrage Association held that winter in Cooper Union, she says: "The +meeting was addressed by Samuel Gompers, President of the Federation of +Labor, by Dr. Peters, an Episcopal clergyman, by Father Ducey, the +Catholic priest, Dr. Saunders, a Baptist minister, and Henry George, the +advocate of single tax." In her address before the Constitutional +Convention, she said: "The Church, which fifty years ago was a unit in +denouncing the public work of woman--even for the slave--is now divided in +its councils." The church never was a unit in denouncing the public work +of woman, and much of her noblest public work has been done under its +auspices. The behavior of Suffrage women in slavery times caused scandal +to church and state. The right of private judgment, claimed always by +Protestant Christianity, has divided the clergy on all questions; and "a +clergyman, a priest, and a minister" were as free to believe, and to speak +what they believed, on suffrage, as were Samuel Gompers, who lately +offended the Labor organization by inviting two anarchists to address it, +and Henry George, whose single-tax theories have lately turned law and +order upside down in Delaware. + +"Interpret the Bible anew from her own standpoint." The volume in which a +beginning has been made in this work is a thick pamphlet bearing a motto +from Cousin on one cover, and the picture of a piano as an advertisement +on the other. It is with a profound sense of sadness and disgust that any +woman who honors God and loves her own sex turns its pages. Behold the +first dilemma in which the commentators find themselves involved. Mrs. +Stanton opens the comments on the Creation as follows: "In the great work +of the creation, the crowning glory was realized when man and woman were +evolved on the sixth day, the masculine and feminine forces in the image +of God, that must have existed eternally, in all forms of matter and +mind.... How then is it possible to make woman an afterthought?... All +those theories based on the assumption that man was prior in the creation, +have no foundation in Scripture. As to woman's subjection, on which both +the canon and civil law delight to dwell, it is important to note that +equal dominion is given to woman over every living thing, but not a word +is said giving man dominion over woman. No lesson of woman's subjection +can be fairly drawn from the first chapter of the Old Testament." + +In commenting on the second account of the Creation, Ellen Battelle +Dietrick says: "It is now generally conceded that some one (nobody +pretends to know who) at some time (nobody pretends to know exactly when) +copied two creation myths on the same leather roll, one immediately +following the other. Modern theologians have, for convenience sake, +entitled these two fables, respectively, the Elohistic and the Jahoistic +stories. They differ not only in the point I have mentioned above, but in +the order of the 'creative acts,' in regard to the mutual attitude of man +and woman, and in regard to human freedom from prohibitions imposed by +deity. Now, it is manifest that both of these stories cannot be true; +intelligent women who feel bound to give the preference to either, may +decide according to their own judgment which is more worthy of an +intelligent woman's acceptance. My own opinion is, that the second story +was manipulated by some wily Jew, in an endeavor to give 'heavenly +authority' for requiring a woman to obey the man she married." Lillie +Devereux Blake takes still another horn of the dilemma. She says: "In the +detailed description of creation we find a gradually ascending series. +'Creeping things,' 'great sea-monsters,' every bird of wing,' 'cattle and +living things of the earth,' the 'fish of the sea and the birds of the +heavens;' then man, and, last and crowning glory of the whole, woman. It +cannot be maintained that woman was inferior to man, even if, as asserted +in chapter ii., she was created after him, without at once admitting that +man is inferior to the creeping things because created after them." + +These commentators, on the whole, agree that the first account of creation +does not teach woman's subjection to man; that, although "some wily Jew" +inserted the second account in an endeavor to give "heavenly authority for +requiring a woman to obey the man she married," he has been outwitted +after all, for the ascending series of creation really teaches the same +lesson as the first account, and from it woman's inferiority cannot be +maintained. And yet it would seem that she must be an "afterthought" if +she is to be superior. + +Mrs. Stanton, in summing up the concensus of opinion on a matter which is +not of the slightest importance to any of them, except that they feel an +interest, for the cause of Suffrage, in endeavoring to release woman from +the long bondage of superstition, says: "The first account dignifies woman +as an important factor in the creation, equal in power and glory with man. +The second makes her a mere afterthought. The world in good running order +without her, the only reason for her advent being the solitude of man. +There is something sublime in bringing order out of chaos; light out of +darkness; giving each planet its place in the solar system; oceans and +lands their limits,--wholly inconsistent with a petty surgical operation +to find material for the mother of the race. It is in this allegory that +all the enemies of woman rest their battering-rams, to prove her +inferiority. Accepting the view that man was prior in the creation, some +Scriptural writers say that, as the woman was of the man, therefore her +position should be one of subjection. Grant it. Then, as the historical +fact is reversed in our day, and the man is now of the woman, shall his +place be one of subjection? The equal position declared in the first +account must prove more satisfactory to both sexes; created alike in the +image of God--the heavenly Mother and Father. Thus, the Old Testament,' in +the beginning,' proclaims the simultaneous creation of man and woman, the +eternity and equality of sex; and the New Testament echoes back through +the centuries the individual sovereignty of woman growing out of this +natural fact. Paul, in speaking of equality as the very soul and essence +of Christianity, said, 'There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither +bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in +Christ Jesus.' With this recognition of the feminine element in the +Godhead in the Old Testament, and this declaration of the equality of the +sexes in the New, we may well wonder at the contemptible status woman +occupies in the Christian Church to-day." + +So the woman who spurns the Bible as the book that is responsible for +woman's degradation, who denies that it is the word of God, who pours out +upon Paul the vials of her wrath, finds in them both her highest warrant +for believing in the "equal position" of woman, "the perfect equality of +the sexes." When the wrath of woman thus praises God, the one who believes +that through woman's status in the Bible and in the Christian Church this +perfect equality is being worked out day by day need not take up +controversial cudgels. Ribaldry in woman seems more gross than in man, and +this is woman's ribaldry. It is profane to speak of the "feminine element +in the Godhead." God is a spirit. There is no more a feminine than a +masculine element in the Godhead. Sex belongs to mortal life and its +conditions. It begins and ends with this earth. Christ has told us so: +There will be in another world "no marrying, nor giving in marriage, but +we all shall be as the angels in heaven." The equality of which Paul spoke +as "the very soul and essence of Christianity" is the equality of the +essence and soul of male and female humanity, and the oneness of the +believer's soul with that of the Christ in whom his soul believes. The +soul of humanity, as well as its body, is bound by sex conditions as long +as it draws the breath of this transitory life. Every thought and every +act reveal the governing power of the sex mould in which its form is cast +for this world's uses. The use of this world is to give preparation for +another and a better one; final spiritual triumph is the end to be +attained. Humanity is now in the image of God only in the essential sense +in which the full corn in the ear may be said to be wrapped up in its +kernel, and it can unfold only according to the laws of its being. The +first account of Creation sets forth, with the beautiful imagery of the +Orient, the general and ultimate truth. The second account, with the same +grand simplicity, foreshadows the method and the long, slow process by +which this ultimate end is to be attained. + +In continuing their comments, the editors say: "In chapter v., verse 23, +Adam proclaims the eternal oneness of the happy pair, 'This is now bone of +my bone and flesh of my flesh;' no hint of her subordination. How could +men, admitting these words to be divine revelation, ever have preached the +subjection of woman? Next comes the naming of the mother of the race. 'She +shall be called woman,' in the ancient form of the word, 'womb-man.' She +was man and more than man, because of her maternity. The assertion of the +supremacy of the woman in the marriage relation is contained in chapter +v., 24: 'Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and cleave +unto his wife.' Nothing is said of the headship of man, but he is +commanded to make her the head of the household, the home, a rule followed +for centuries under the Matriarchate." + +A rule that has been followed rudely through all centuries, and is +followed to-day with far greater approach to perfect obedience. Maternity +was to be God's method of working out the problem of changing the +innocence of ignorant savagery to the holiness of enlightened +civilization. To this end, the more delicate and complex organism of the +womb-man must be cared for by the strength and steadiness that could find +full play because that subtler task was not demanded of it. + +In commenting on chapter iii., which contains the account of the Garden of +Eden and the eating of the apple, they say: "As out of this allegory grow +the doctrines of original sin, the fall of man and of woman the author of +all our woes, and the curses on the serpent, the woman and the man, the +Darwinian theory of the gradual growth of the race from a lower to a +higher type of animal life is more hopeful and encouraging." + +The Christian doctrine is more hopeful and encouraging still. It reveals +the growth of the race from a low type of animal life to the perfect life +of the soul. + +We do not need to go back to the garden where our first parents dwelt, to +look for the substantiation of the eternal truth of this whole wondrous +story. Amid the landscape of the civilization of the noblest country that +the world possesses, we have the drama repeated. In the work of Anne +Hutchinson, Ann Lee, Frances Wright, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Stanton, +Susan Anthony, Ellen Dietrick, Lillie Blake, and their fellow- +commentators, we have re-enacted the Temptress and the Fall. Woman first +aspired. She stretched forth her eager hand to seize the good, and in so +doing snatched the evil that grew beside it. The woman in Eden had not +learned what maternity taught her later--that she could point the path, +but could not lead in entering it. Wherever woman has forgotten this hard- +won but glorious lesson, she has been the most dangerous of guides. The +conscience, that intellect of the soul, woke first in woman. By her +obedience to its voice, the faith that worketh by love had its perfected +work, and the promise that was given to her was fulfilled in the birth of +Christ. A Creation story without a gospel is chaos without gravitation, +primal darkness without the sun. Forward to divinity in human form woman +was able, through obedience, to point mankind. Backward to divinity in +human form she points again, until humanity itself shall become divine. If +she loses the final vision, or substitutes her own, she can neither point +nor guide. No wonder woman has been a mystery to the church. No wonder a +witch was not allowed to live, while a wizard might; she was more +dangerous. No wonder Paul was perplexed by the woman question. No wonder +monks fled to the desert. Christ has spoken the final words of woman, "Thy +faith hath saved thee." From the anguish of His cross he said: "Woman, +behold thy son!" "Behold thy mother," and the beloved disciple "took her +to his own home from that hour." + +In the Suffrage appeal of 1860, the writers said: "The difference between +husband and wife is as vast as the difference between Christ and his +Church." Christ himself says that the difference between him and his +Church is that of degree, not of kind, and that the resemblance is that of +essential oneness. He says: "I am the vine, ye are the branches." Could +union be more completely pictured? The fruit-bearing branch cannot say to +the strength-giving vine, "I have no need of thee." The vine cannot say, +"I have no need of thee." Man in his imperious folly has pictured the +relationship as that of oak and vine which have no organic union; but, +despite imperiousness and folly, both men and women, through mutual +obedience to God, have thus far worked out, and are still working out, the +nobler destiny for both. + +In summing up their opinion of the Pentateuch, the editors of the Suffrage +Woman's Bible say: "This utter contempt for all the decencies of life, and +all the natural personal rights of women, as set forth in these pages, +should destroy, in the minds of women at least, all authority to +superhuman origin, and stamp the Pentateuch at least as emanating from the +most obscene minds of a barbarous age." So low can woman fall in ignorance +and shameless audacity when the faith that works by love is lost. As the +spirit of the Commandments comes to prevail, the decencies of life and the +natural personal rights of woman become more secure. Here again Christ has +spoken the ultimate word. He says: "Ye have heard by them of old time' +Thou shalt not commit adultery,' but I say unto you whosoever looketh on a +woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his +heart." This is the standard of chastity to which mankind must come. When +the Hebrew mother in living faith cast the bread of her own life's being +upon the Nile, she was to find it after many days in the great law-giver +of her people. The Commandments received through him were the +foreshadowing of those greater oracles in which Christ summed up the whole +duty of man. The individual liberty which Moses was the first to proclaim +to a whole people, in the Pentateuch, Christ, his anti-type, proclaimed to +a whole world, and on his proclamation rests to-day the freedom of woman +and of the American Republic. The Bread of Life, again cast on the +troubled waters of this world, by woman's faith, through Mary the Virgin +Mother, is returning after many days. + +Strange that we should forever turn back, as if the application of any +essential truth were finished. The child walks by faith. The childhood of +the world walked by faith, and left in the Bible the evidence of things +that are not seen but are eternal. The Suffrage movement has a quarrel +with the Bible because the Creator is there represented, for the reverence +of the race, under the guise of a Heavenly Father, and not a Heavenly +Mother, or rather, not as a human pair, equal in dignity and power. If the +first impulsion of love toward God had come into this world through the +mind of man, he would have represented the divine love that his soul +conceived under the guise of that being on earth whom he most loved. But +love was born with the "disabilities" of woman; it was evolved through +motherhood; and the same impulse that gave it, exalted, not itself, but +what it loved and trusted. "I have gotten a man from the Lord" said the +first recorded mother, who had learned to know the Lord through +motherhood; and the boy she bore was taught to look up with confidence to +the strength and protection of his father. She told him that the pity of +his father, which made him bring food and raiment, and which guarded his +home, was an image of the feeling that was felt for him by the divine +being. Could man have learned the lesson first, we can see that the story +would have been different, because man has named every beautiful and +gracious thing for woman. Virtue, temperance, truth, purity, love, faith, +hope, liberty, grace, beauty, charity, the inspirers of art and science, +of music and literature, of justice and of religion, all are feminine. +When man says: "Our Father which art in heaven," he prays as his mother +taught him. Through the self-abnegation that was unconscious of its +sacrifice, woman was to be the instrument for bringing human life up, on, +to the God who, being spirit, could act upon a clay-bound mind only +through the highest human thing that love could know. Men, as well as +women, have misunderstood and misinterpreted this. The love that "is not +puffed up," "doth not behave itself unseemly," cannot proclaim its own +virtue--to arrogate it is to lose it. But the secret of the Lord has been +with those who feared Him, and it has led the world aright in spite of +blunder and of sin. + +If man, in his ignorant conceit, has fancied that this was the subjection +of woman, it has been a part of his mother's lesson to correct that +impression. If woman, in her folly, has allowed herself to make the same +mistake, that, too, is working out its cure through the love that so +arranged human nature that "a man should leave father and mother and +cleave unto his wife, and they twain should be one flesh," and that "_her +desire_ should be to her husband" in those matters wherein the mutual +interest required that he should bear sway. If there is a minister of +religion who holds to the perverted notion that, because woman ate the +original apple in disobedience to God's command, she was the bringer of +original sin into the world, and for that was and is punished by arbitrary +subjection to the authority of man, that minister does not deserve the +support of women. The fact that he would have few listeners, and fewer +followers, if women were not the bringers and the maintainers of religious +faith is sufficient proof against such an exposition of scripture. As a +matter of fact, while the dogmatism of belief, like the dogmatism of +unbelief, has made assertions that have dishonored both divine and human +nature, the practical working of formulated faiths of all names has been +to approach the standard laid down in the Old and the New Testament. The +model of being set by Christ is that of a little child. "Except ye become +as little children, ye shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven." The +natural characteristics of the child are faith, and hope, and love--the +virtues that abide. When the virile apostle to the Gentiles "put away +childish things," he kept these childlike qualities. If woman first +attains them in perfection, she is superior; if man, he is superior. In +the race toward the final goal, to be equal in accomplishment it is +needful to be equal in obedience. The keynote of Paul's preaching was +obedience--the obedience of all human beings to God in Christ, the +obedience of all men and women to lawful civil authority for the sake of +Christ and the promotion of his kingdom,--the obedience of men to one +another in the churchly offices, for the sake of that "decency" that he +loved and enjoined--the obedience of the equal wife to the husband who was +the external representative of family life. + +With Eastern nations the veil was the sign of retirement, of domestic +life, and it was assumed by wives when they were in the street or in a +public assembly. In heathen and barbarous countries it was also deemed a +sign of woman's subjection and inferiority. The Hebrews were the first +people to attain any truly spiritual conceptions, and they began to have a +commensurately higher idea of the possibilities of woman's nature and +work. When Christian women, in their new-found freedom, would have thrown +aside the veil, just as Christian men, in their new-found reverence for +God, would have repudiated the heathen wife, Paul said to them both that +Christian liberty was individual,--it changed the character, not the sex +relations. In arranging for church discipline, he advised that men should +uncover the head, and women should wear the veil. But he said, in +reference to that veil, that "woman should have _power_ on her head, +because of the angels." The angels are spoken of in the New Testament as +veiling their faces in the very presence of the Creator. In that truer +symbolism of Christianity, man was to uncover his head in token of +reverence to God and acceptance of the responsibility of the guardianship +of the earth. Woman was to cover her head in token of her acceptance of +man's guardianship and of her dominion over his heart, to which she had +revealed God's will. + +Paul adds: "For as the woman is of the man, so is the man also of the +woman; but all things are of God." This relation was one of the mysteries +that Paul said he did not comprehend, nor could he, till the lessons he +taught should work out their results, and might serve as commentary. + +Life itself, as well as all that life could come to mean, depended upon +woman's consenting. The word "obey" in some marriage services seems, like +what it really is, a survival. Obedience has brought its reward, and the +consent of the heart is more than the consent of the lips. But if there is +no consent of the heart to wifehood and motherhood, in time there will be +no chivalry, no progress, no final emancipation for the race. Consenting +is also commanding, and woman loses her life in order to find it in the +fulfillment of her wish. It was consent to her own teaching. The +chivalrous and tender-hearted Paul, who spoke of women with reverent +affection, who adopted as his own the mother of Rufus, was repeating the +lesson of every Jewish mother from Sarah to Deborah, and from Deborah to +the women who were last at Christ's cross and first beside his tomb. +Deborah, who was the judge, prophetess and poet, but first of all "a +mother in Israel," under whom her degenerate people had peace for forty +years, rebuked Barak and said, to their humiliation: "This day shall the +Lord deliver Israel by the hand of a woman." From this teaching Paul +uttered his rebuke to the wayward church at Corinth: "It is a shame for a +man to cover his head, inasmuch as he is the image and glory of God; but +the woman is the glory of the man." And he added, in speaking of the +wearing of the veil, "For this cause ought the woman to have power" +"because of the angels." In the Epistle to the Ephesians Paul admonishes +the Church to be "imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, +even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself for you, an offering and a +sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour." Again, he says: "Therefore, +as the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own +husbands in everything." And as if to make doubly certain that no one +should think that such submission implied bondage or inequality, he adds +"Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the Church and _gave +himself for it_." Again, he says: "So ought men to love their wives, as +their own bodies.... Even as the Lord the Church," adding with almost +strained Oriental vehemence, "for we are members of his body, of his flesh +and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and his +mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they twain shall be one +flesh." + +The comment most readily suggested is, that through this teaching the use +of the veil has now no such significance. The uncovering of the head is a +token of respect, largely to woman. The retention of the bonnet is not +dreamed of in connection with woman's relation to man, nor does it suggest +woman's power in the moral world. The obedience through which love +"constrained" a mind that had been bred to forms, was free. If anybody now +holds that woman was intended to glorify God indirectly, through man, or +to serve God by serving man, he makes an assumption long discredited, and +not in accord with the spirit of Christ and of Paul. Man is as much the +glory of woman as woman is the glory of man, and they reveal equally the +glory of God. + +In speaking of the proprieties of life, Paul said: "Does not nature +herself teach you?" "If a man have long hair, it is a shame to him." "If a +woman have long hair, it is a glory to her." The badge of womanhood is a +glory, and the "short-haired women and long-haired men" of the early +Suffrage movement transformed the symbols of dignity and honor into those +of contempt and disgrace. + +Canon law grew up during the Middle Ages, when came the great + + "Death-grapple in the darkness, 'twixt old systems and the Word." + +The wondrous church that rose on the ruins of Roman militarism, and +overthrew Norman feudalism, gave evidence, in its code, of the bitterness +of the conflict and the rudeness of the time. The legal fiction that, in +acknowledging the oneness of husband and wife, yet made the husband that +one, was a perversion of Scripture. + +It has been publicly said by Suffragists from the first, that the tenets +of the Church of Rome, in which Canon law had its origin, were inimical to +woman suffrage; and they have further said that those who canonize women +and worship the Virgin Mother, should naturally have been friendly to the +Suffrage idea. I suppose no one will deny that the spirit of the Roman +body is that of a state church. I have no more to say in criticism of it +as a Christian denomination than I have of others; but that organization +which has held temporal and spiritual power to be co-ordinate and +interdependent in government, presents a political phase that has direct +bearing on my theme, and I make my few comments as a historian. The Church +that inculcates Mariolatry would have far more ignorant women to add to +our body of voters than any other. It has done less for woman's education +and general advancement than any other, but its claims are not therefore +modest. The school elections in Staten Island last year gave an object- +lesson in regard to its intention to use the suffrage. In Connecticut, the +school election presented another evidence of the intense interest felt by +the Catholic clergy in public-school matters. In California, in the late +canvass for woman suffrage, that Church assisted largely in carrying on +the work to secure the amendment. While many of its individual members are +among the noblest friends that civil and religious freedom have in our +country, this church, by its traditions, and by its latest +pronunciamentos, shows itself as a force that, for its own selfish +reasons, may be reckoned on the side of woman suffrage in its conflict +with woman's progress. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +WOMAN SUFFRAGE AND SEX. + + +The ninth count of the Suffrage Declaration says: "He has created a false +sentiment by giving to the world a different code of morals for men and +women, by which moral delinquencies which exclude woman from society, are +not only tolerated, but deemed of little account in men." And the list of +grievances is summed up as follows: "Because women do feel themselves +aggrieved, oppressed and fraudulently deprived of their most sacred +rights, we insist that they have immediate admission to all the rights and +privileges which belong to them as citizens of the United States." + +The writers do not say whether the code of morals referred to is a code of +law or an unwritten code of public sentiment. If they mean the former, +their statement is not true; for whatever laws affect moral delinquencies +visit their penalties equally upon men and women. If they mean public +sentiment alone, the answer is, that both men and women are responsible +for its creation. It is folly to deny that there is, in the nature of +things, more excuse for men than for women. A mother realizes that her son +has a natural temptation of which her daughter knows nothing. But this +fact, while it accounts in part for the different standard, by no means +exonerates man. One of the strangest anomalies of human experience exists +in connection with this matter. Man reposes his deepest faith in the +existence of goodness at its vital point, in the virtue of woman; and yet +when he tramples upon that virtue he screens himself behind the excuse +that her nature is as vulnerable as his own, while his temptation is +greater. The main reason, as it seems to me, why women often appear more +cruel to their fallen sisters than do men, lies in the fact that pure +women abhor this vice as they abhor no other. Besides bestowing upon woman +a loftier moral sense, her Creator has hedged about her virtue with a +feeling of physical repulsion that is distinct from the moral question +involved. The social life of the world is to a large extent in woman's +hands. When she says to men "You cannot bring your impurity into my home," +"You must be the ones to guard our sons and daughters," the reform will be +begun in earnest. Woman's faith, and her abstract way of looking at moral +questions, prevent her from fastening her thought, as men naturally do, on +any special culprit, in her severe but vague sense of wrong in this +matter. The Suffragists have taken fewer steps in the direction of +removing the social plague-spot than in the direction of bringing about a +system of easier divorce--a thing that strikes a blow directly against, +instead of for, the virtue of their sex. Social opinion is causing a +change in some of the laws concerning social vice. Nearly every State +legislature has raised the age of consent. So far as Suffrage associations +have assisted in this, it proves their ability and their good will; but +much more is due to our educated physicians and philanthropists. + +It seems at first thought as if there were no direct connection between +voting and social questions of sex; but I am following the lead of my +Suffrage texts. Others who attempt the discussion are led to the same +themes. Dr. Jacobi, in her book, says: "The problem is, to show why, in a +representative system based on the double principle that all the +intelligence in the state shall be enlisted for its welfare, and all the +weakness in the state represented for its own defence, women, being often +intelligent, and often weak, and always persons in the community, should +not also be represented." In replying to the anti-suffrage arguments of +Prof. Goldwin Smith, she says: "Do sex relations depend upon acts of +Parliament or constitutional amendments? Can women marry a ballot, or +embrace the franchise, otherwise than by a questionable figure of speech? +Must adultery and infanticide necessarily be favored by the decisions of +female jurors? Is divorce legislation, as arranged by the exclusive wisdom +of men, now so satisfactory that women--who must perforce be involved in +every case--should always modestly refrain from attempting amendment? This +entire class of considerations, however irrelevant to the issue, may be +grouped together and considered together, because, to a large class of +minds--the rudest, quite as much as those of Mr. Smith's cultivation--they +are the considerations that do come to the front whenever equal rights are +suggested." She adds that the reason they come to the front is, "that men, +accustomed to think of men as possessing sex attributes and other things +besides, are accustomed to think of women as having sex and nothing else." + +Is there a ruder mind anywhere than one that could not only think but +write a sentiment so revolting and so false? And yet the statement admits +that, whatever the reason, the sex issue does underlie the whole Suffrage +question. + +In their "History," the leaders not only set forth all the specific +charges in their Declaration of Sentiments, but of this "rebellion such as +the world has never seen" they say: "Men saw that with political equality +for woman, she could no longer be kept in social subjection. The fear of a +social revolution thus complicated the discussion." + +In the Introduction to the Suffrage Woman's Bible, the commentators say: +"How can woman's position be changed from that of a subordinate to an +equal, without opposition?--without the broadest discussion of all the +questions involved in her present degradation? For so far-reaching and +momentous a reform as her complete independence, an entire revolution in +all existing institutions is inevitable." + +Dr. Jacobi says: "To-day, when all men rule, and diffused self-government +has abolished the old divisions between the governing classes and the +governed, only one class remains over whom all men can exercise +sovereignty--namely, the women. Hence a shuddering dread runs through +society at the proposal to also abolish this last refuge of facile +domination." + +Here, then, all these Suffragists present a problem far more momentous +than appears when it is proposed "to show why, in a representative system +based on the double principle that all the intelligence in the state shall +be enlisted for its welfare, and all the weakness in the state represented +for its defence, women, being often intelligent, and often weak, and +always persons, should not also be represented." It is the sex battle that +has been waged from the beginning. In the Suffrage Woman's Bible Mrs. +Stanton says: "The correction of this [the misinterpretation of the Bible +as concerns woman] will restore her, and deprive her enemy, man, of a +reason for his oppression and a weapon of attack." Disguise it as they +may, to themselves and to others, the Suffrage idea is compelled to claim +that man is woman's enemy, that the ballot is the engine of his power, and +that therefore she must vote. The reason that "these considerations come +to the front whenever equal rights is mentioned" is because the women of +that movement brought them there, and keep them there, and because no one +can seriously consider the matter without seeing that they belong there. + +In discussing them, Dr. Jacobi says: "What is imagined, claimed, and very +seriously demanded, is, that women be recognized as human beings, with a +range of faculties and activities co-extensive with that of men, whatever +may be the difference in the powers within that range." + +In another place she admits that "women are really recognized as +individuals, the same as men," and the fact that they are so recognized is +made the basis of an argument for their voting. Suppose men demanded that +they be given a "range of faculties and activities co-extensive with that +of women, whatever may be the difference in the powers within that range," +if they demanded it "seriously" they would probably become laughing- +stocks. + +She says: "The sex relations of women as lovers, as wives, as mothers, as +daughters, remain untouched, certainly unimpaired, by the demand to extend +beyond these. What is impaired is not the sex relation, nor sex condition, +but the social disabilities, the personal and social subordination, the +condition of political non-existence, which have been foisted upon that +sex condition." + +The repeated demand to "extend beyond" the sex relations of either sex +_is_ a demand to touch those relations, and whether it is a demand to +impair them depends upon the question whether it is true that disabilities +and subordination have been foisted upon the sex conditions. In olden +times they were. Men were subject to social disabilities, personal and +social subordination, and political non-existence. It followed that women +were also in the same subjection. As men threw off the yoke, the sex +relations began to assume their natural position. Man was the protector, +woman the protected. In the natural relations, the protector is at the +service of the protected, and that is the state of things to-day. In order +to be preserved in bodily, mental, and spiritual freedom, woman must yield +with grace to the hand that serves her. In order to protect, man must see +to it that this freedom he has won is kept sacred and inviolable. He +cannot be at once a tyrant and a guard. This freedom removes from woman +all disabilities save those of sex. The question then is, can all the +intelligence and all the weakness of women be represented for their own +welfare and their own defence, by the same methods as those by which men +attain that end, and yet leave these fundamental sex relations untouched +and unimpaired? + +The Suffrage leaders did not expect or intend to leave them untouched, or +unimpaired, if complete change was impairment. In the "History" they say: +"It is often asked if political equality--would not arouse antagonism +between the sexes? If it could be proved that men and women had been +harmonious in all ages and countries, and that women were happy and +satisfied in their slavery, we might hesitate in proposing any change +whatever; but the apathy, the helpless, hopeless resignation of a subject +class, cannot be called happiness. A woman growing up under American ideas +of liberty in government and religion cannot brook any disability based on +sex alone, without a deep feeling of antagonism with the power that +creates it." + +Dr. Jacobi says: "Manhood Suffrage in America may seem to result, +historically, from the general average equality of social conditions among +the inhabitants of the Thirteen States. But it may also be deduced as a +philosophical necessity from the Idea of Individualism, which became the +core of the Federal Union. This idea, at first suggested only for men, +has, little by little, spread to women also." + +Individualism, in the sense of personal moral responsibility, became the +core, first of the Hebrew Theocracy, and last of the American National +life. But that republicanism which has come to rest on sex distinction is +the combined result of Individualism and Authority. Suffrage discussion +for years has turned upon the idea of Individualism _versus_ Authority. + +In a government like ours, where all the intelligence and all the weakness +_are_ represented for their own welfare and defence, authority must to a +certain extent hold a stern hand over individualism, because freedom for +all means license for not a single one, be it man or woman. Mrs. Fanny +Ames says: "Any argument [against Suffrage] worth anything at all, comes +down to this--an argument against American democracy--and must rest +there." Many arguments have been adduced against Woman Suffrage that were +also arguments against democracy; because there are always people, and +wise people too, who fear the test of the ultimate experiment. To this +fear the Suffragists catered when, in contradiction to their own dictum of +universal suffrage, they asked Congress for a sixteenth amendment that +should require an educational qualification for all, both men and women. +But, guided by the statesmanship that seeks to form a true and enduring +democracy, this Republic has come to the sex basis. + +Dr. Jacobi says: "The complex contradictions in the present distributions +of sovereign power are further intensified by the vulgarization of the +general ideal. It is one thing to say, 'Some men shall rule,' quite +another to declare, 'All men shall rule,' and that in virtue of the most +primitive and rudimentary attribute they possess,--that, namely, of sex. +If the original contempt for masses of men has ever diminished, and the +conception of mankind been ennobled, it is because, upon the primitive +animal foundation, human imagination has built a fair structure of mental +and moral attribute and possibility, and habitually deals with that. This +indeed is no new thing to do; for it was to this moral man that Pericles +addressed his funeral oration, and of whom Lincoln thought in his speech +at Gettysburg. Of this moral man, women--the sex hitherto so despised--are +now recognized to constitute an integral part. It is useless, therefore, +to attempt to throw them out by an appeal to the primitive conditions of a +physical force to which no one appeals for any other purpose." + +The immortal orator at Gettysburg was commander-in-chief of an army and +navy whose physical power was then in the very act of saving the nation +and redeeming it from the sin of slavery. The soldier-statesman of Greece, +in his funeral oration, was addressing an army. The fair structure of +mental and moral attribute and possibility has not been built by human +imagination. The conception of the moral man that has ennobled mankind is +older than any man who has embodied it. It is as old as mankind itself, +upon whose primitive animal foundation God implanted side by side the +conception of the moral man, woman--and of the governing man, man. + +That no inequality should be possible when this idea should really rest +upon the most primitive, rudimentary and yet continuing and controlling +attribute, instead of upon complex contradictions in regard to the +distribution of sovereign human power, God, speaking through the ideal +which the moral man had grasped, said: "Therefore shall a man leave his +father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they twain +shall be one flesh." + +Man is not the hereditary sovereign in a republic. He is an actual, +present, continuing sovereign, and he is that only so long as he obeys the +law of his being and constitutes himself, by reason of his manhood +strength, the defence of the republic's laws for all. In woman suffrage +democracy has met a most dangerous foe. It has been asked "If it would be +best for man to make over half his sovereignty to woman?" I cannot imagine +how he could do this, whatever might be his wish. Sovereignty in a +republic is only divisible among those who are equals as to sovereign +power; and any effort to divide with those who lack the essential +attribute must result in despotism or anarchy. Men are as subject to the +restrictions and requirements of sex as are women, and when they try an +experiment contrary to those conditions, the end must be destruction of +government itself. + +Prof. Goldwin Smith says: "One of the features of a revolutionary era is +the prevalence of a feeble facility of abdication. The holders of power, +however natural and legitimate it may be, are too ready to resign it on +the first demand.... The nerves of authority are shaken by the failure of +conviction." + +This is true, and it is what makes the present situation portentous. From +the very tenderheartedness of the men of our time comes the danger to the +women of this nation. So far from desiring to hold the slightest +restriction over the women of the Republic, they may rush into an attempt +at abdication of a sovereignty that did not originate in their will but in +their environment, in order to prove the sincerity of their desire that +woman should not even appear to be compelled to obey. + +This movement is a feature of the revolutionary era that seems suddenly to +have extended to the men with whose theories it belongs. Not at once, nor +everywhere equally, but finally and completely would this change come. +Man, as well as woman, must "consent to be governed" by the laws of being. +If man really could "share his sovereignty," there might be some show of +reason in the Suffrage claim that he should do so. But unless he can +abdicate the very essentials of his sex condition, he cannot abdicate his +sovereignty. His laws are dead letters whenever more men than those who +passed them and approve them choose that they shall be dead. He would have +no material outside the men in this country, with which to execute the +wishes of the woman voters whom it is proposed to introduce to make laws +which they know they cannot themselves enforce. + +And this leads us right round again to consider the "disabilities foisted +upon sex conditions." The first thing demanded of a voter is that, in the +ordinary state of things, he should be able to vote. A body of citizens is +asking that a sex be admitted to franchise when it is known to all that a +large part of that sex would at every election find it physically +impossible, or improper, to go to the polls. Suffragists say: "No women +need vote who do not wish to; but they have no right to hinder us." Is +this the Individualism of Democracy? It is the Individualism of Anarchy. +It is not the rule of the majority. It is class rule with a vengeance; and +as for "consenting to be governed," there never was a man or a government +that so coolly assumed to govern without their consent such a body, as do +the Suffragists. The disabilities "foisted upon sex" would be felt first +of all by the wives and mothers who are most interested in the laws. + +The next duty of citizenship is jury service. The leaders said: "We +demand, in criminal cases, that most sacred of all rights, trial by jury +of our own peers." In regard to jury duty Suffragists are not agreed; +which fact alone shows that that service would be felt to be an impairment +of sex conditions. So impossible has jury duty been found, even in small +communities, that in Wyoming the jury service of women ceased with the +first judge who admitted them to serve at all; and in Colorado but one or +two women have ever served. The judges there do not allow them to be +called. It was found to be expensive, and not promotive of the ends of +justice. Whether this is held to be man's cruel withholding of woman's +rights or not, it shows that either the sex condition or the co- +extensiveness of woman's work with man's must be impaired. Dr. Jacobi says +in regard to jury service: "The numerous cases for exemption now admitted +for men would be certainly paralleled for women, but they would not always +be identical. Men are now more often excused for business; women would be +excused on the plea of ill-health. Of course the special plea of family +cares with young children would rule out thousands of women during a +number of years of their lives." + +Who would establish the "special plea" for so large a proportion of the +voting population? No law of justice on which a solid government can rest +could do it; and that it would be asked, and needed, shows that sex +conditions would interfere with voting conditions. A criminal case often +lasts weeks, even months, during which time the jury are kept together and +alone, locked up at night, and walked out by day. This second duty cannot +be, and is not, performed; not because many women would not make good +jurors, not because they should not try delicate cases, and might not +serve well at certain times, and in special ways, but because jury duty, +like military service, cannot take account of sex conditions when they are +the rule and not the exception. + +Office-holding is the next necessary concomitant of the ballot. Of course +it can be said at once: "Why, multitudes of men never hold office, why +should women?" It may be answered that multitudes of men do hold office, +that no American would think of extending the ballot without expecting +that, as an accompaniment, the duty, or the privilege, of office-holding +should follow. + +Not only is it true that if more than half the population were added to +the voting list multitudes among them would attempt to rush into office, +but it was mainly for office that a majority of those who have been +pressing the demand cared for the vote. The authors of the "History" say: +"As to offices, it is not be supposed that the class of men now elected +will resign to women their chances, and, if they should to any extent, the +necessary number of women to fill the offices would make no apparent +change in our social circles. If, for example, the Senate of the United +States should be entirely composed of women, but two in each State would +be withdrawn from the pursuit of domestic happiness." + +How could "the class of men now elected" help resigning, if women enough +chose to put up a woman and give her a majority of votes,--provided, as +Suffragists say, that the vote secures the office and retains it by a mere +mandate? But it is not one office, or set of offices, which we have to +consider. It is the entrance upon political life, permanently, of a large +body of women. What that means to the social life that "would not miss +them," we well know. There could be no domestic ties; no hindering child. +The time would be short before this unnatural position would breed a race +of Aspasias--without the intellect that ruled "the ruler of the land, when +Athens was the land of fame." + +The "History" says: "An honest fear is sometimes expressed 'that women +would degrade politics, and politics would degrade women,'" and the +writers answer: "As the influence of woman has been uniformly elevating in +new civilizations, in missionary work in heathen lands, in schools, +colleges, literature, and general society, it is fair to suppose that +politics would prove no exception." We do not need to depend upon forecast +or inference. The influence of women upon politics, and the influence of +politics upon women, have already been degrading. This is true of +political intrigue in the old world, and of the "Female Lobby" in +Washington. It is astonishing to what an extent it is true in our new +country, with our fresh and sweet traditions. + +In 1851, Mrs. Stanton, writing to a convention at Akron, Ohio, said: "The +great work before us is the education of those just coming on the stage of +action. Begin with the girls of to-day, and in twenty years we can +revolutionize this nation. Teach the girl to go alone by night and day, if +need be, on the lonely highway, or through the busy streets of the crowded +metropolis. Better for her to suffer occasional insults, or die outright, +than live the life of a coward, or never move without a protector.... +Teach her that it is no part of life to cater to the prejudices of those +around her. Make her independent of public sentiment, by showing her how +worthless and rotten a thing it is.... Think you, women thus educated +would long remain the weak, dependent beings we now find them? They would +soon settle for themselves this whole question of Woman's Rights." + +Fifty years of such teaching has had its effect. The fine bloom has too +often been brushed from our girls' delicacy of thought. They can strut +through the street in the daytime wearing a shirt-front, a cravat, a +choker, a vest, and a man's hat, and carrying a cane. A few can flaunt +themselves in bloomers and knickerbockers, and ride astride a bicycle. +They ape men in everything except courtesy to women. But the result is not +what was expected. These customs have introduced the chaperone, and have +put an end to simple freedom between boys and girls. The Puritan maiden in +her modesty could let John Alden speak for himself, because the John who +could summon courage to speak of love to such a girl would not dare to +breathe impurity. When the young woman requires a social spy, the young +man is apt to forget that her innocent dignity is her own best guardian. +With the passing of the "lady," American women may fail to remember that a +gentlewoman need pretend to no aristocracy but that of the _noblesse +oblige_ of her own femininity. In the paragraph quoted above, women are +spoken of as those who are "uniformly elevating" and as "weak and +dependent" to a contemptuous degree. They cannot be both at once, and it +seems to me that in fact they are neither. Woman is not an angel nor a +demon, not a conqueror nor a slave. But the seed from which any of these +conflicting natures may develop lies in more fertile soil, within her +impassioned and impressible soil, than in man's. The Suffrage movement +will leave her much better or worse than it found her. The phrase "the new +woman," with the instinctive explanation that she "is as refined, or as +good a wife, mother, sister, daughter, housekeeper," as the old, is +ominous. + +Suffrage writers seem to hold two views in regard to sex. One is, that it +is so pervasive that it cannot be affected by any line of conduct. The +other is, that, so far as mind is concerned, it is purely a fanciful +barrier, and the less there appears of external distinction the better +will this be realized. The Suffrage "History" says: "Sex pervades all +matter. Whatever it is, it requires no special watchfulness on our part to +see that it is maintained." At the same time the dictum "There is no sex +in mind," has been a Suffrage war-cry. It seems to me that both views are +unscientific and dangerous to social morals. Sex integrity is pervasive of +the whole nature only when men and women are true to the ideal of the +essential distinctions in each. The true environment of woman is +womanliness; not to fit her nature to the utmost that womanliness can mean +to the world, is to fail of womanly attainment. But making herself a +distorted woman cannot make her even an imperfect man. The mere act of +going to the polls is not unwomanly; it might be as proper as going to the +post-office; but attempting to encroach upon duty that is laid upon man in +her behalf is neither womanly nor manly. + +In demanding equality, Suffragists assume that there is not and has not +been equality. In asserting that "there is no sex in mind," they really +have had to maintain that there is one sex in mind, and that the +masculine, to which woman must conform. If man wanted clinching arguments +to prove his superiority, could he find another to match this one which +suffrage has furnished him? The quaint wit of the Yankee put it neatly +when he gave the toast, "Woman--once our superior, now our equal!" Man has +said: "The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world." He has also said, +with Martin: "Whatever may be the customs and laws of a country, the women +of it decide the morals." The civilization of no nation has risen higher +than the carrying out of the religious ideals of its best womanhood. If +man has the outward framing of church and state, woman has the framing of +the character of man. There is no schism in the body of human duties as +the Lord established them. The issues have become more distinctly and +openly moral issues; and in so far as woman can make it consist with that +inner life of the home and the child, which alone can make the family and +fix the state on any sure foundation, she is welcomed by man to meet the +common foe. Such new avenues to wealth and distinction as she can enter +with womanly dignity and grace will open to her as fast as man can make +them places where she can walk with security and comfort to herself and +advantage to them both. And they will open no faster. + +The woman Suffragist has had to wage as bitter a warfare against physical +science as against religion. Eliza Burt Gamble, in her volume which +discusses "The Evolution of Woman," takes up the cudgels against both the +Bible and man's scientific classification of woman, or rather his failure +to classify her properly at all. She says: "When we bear in mind the past +experience of the human race, it is not perhaps surprising that, during an +era of physical force and the predominance of the animal instincts in man, +the doctrine of male superiority should have become firmly grounded. But +with the dawn of scientific investigation it might have been hoped that +the prejudices resulting from a lower condition of human society would +disappear. When, however, we turn to the most advanced scientific writers +of the present century, we find that the prejudices which throughout +thousands of years have been gathering strength are by no means +eradicated. Mr. Darwin, whenever he had occasion to touch on the mental +capacities of women, or, more particularly, the relative capacities of the +sexes, manifested the same spirit which characterizes an earlier age." + +Herbert Spencer, in his essay on "Justice," says that he once favored +woman suffrage "from the point of view of a general principle of +individual rights." Later he finds that this cannot be maintained, because +he "discovers mental and emotional differences between the sexes which +disqualify women from the burden of government and the exercise of its +functions." He also considers it absurd for women to claim the vote and +military exemption in the name of equality. + +Science has told us of the active, as well as the passive, part that the +mother plays in the growth of the embryo, and at the same time has told us +that the sex of that embryo is determined by the nourishing power of the +mother. The commonplace statistics of the census come in with their +verifying word, and we find that in rude times and hard conditions more +boys are born. Gentle conditions and abundance are favorable to the birth +of girls. Here is the same story we have learned so often. Man the +protector, woman the protected. Woman the inspiring force, man the +organizing and physical power. + +So the Bible, Science, and Republican government, according to Suffragist +and Anti-suffragist, have planted themselves squarely on the sex issue. It +is solid standing-ground, and neither apparent irrelevancy nor real +antagonism will dislodge the argument. + + +Dr. Jacobi, in her address before the Constitutional Convention, said: +"Still, all women do not demand the suffrage. We are sometimes told that +the thousands of women who do want the suffrage must wait until those who +are now indifferent, or even hostile, can be converted from their +position. Gentlemen, we declare that theory is preposterous. It is true +that the exercise of an independent sovereignty necessitates the +demonstration of a very considerable amount of independence. A rebel state +that cannot break its own blockade may not call upon a foreign power to +move from its neutrality to do so. But the demand for equal suffrage is in +nowise analogous to a claim for independent sovereignty. It is rather +analogous to the claim to the protection of existing laws, which any group +of people, or even a single person, may make." + +Under a democratic government a claim for equal suffrage is a claim to +share the independent sovereignty that protects, and therefore it cannot +be analogous to a claim for protection, individual or otherwise, under +that sovereignty. Does Dr. Jacobi mean that in asking for suffrage she +does not ask to be as much an independent sovereign as any masculine voter +of them all? The comparison of woman's claims to suffrage to the +protection afforded by existing laws, suggests a narrowing of the demand +to fit the requirements of an apparently hopeless struggle for a majority +vote of women. + +The Government is spoken of by Suffragists as if it were something +exterior to and apart from the individual voters--a code of laws that had +been set going and would run of itself, the laws being changed by more or +fewer votes, but the power to execute being automatic and continuous. As +this is the opposite of the actual situation, these rebels will have to +"break their own blockade" like any others. + +The "pacific blocade" that is enforced by the Quaker guns of this movement +has its peaceful war-cries. One of the most exultant is an allusion to the +expression "We the people" in the preamble of our national Constitution, +with the question whether "people" does not include women. A reading of +the entire preamble shows that, of the six achievements there specified as +the purpose of the Constitution, every one is a thing that only men can +do--with the possible exception of the fifth, which proposes rather +vaguely to "promote the general welfare." + +As to the thousands of women who want the vote, there are some figures as +to the majority that "are indifferent or even hostile." I see by the +pamphlet published by the New York State Suffrage Association, that they +have but 1,600 paying members, which is not one in a thousand of the women +in the State over twenty years of age. As Mrs. Winslow Crannell has made a +careful computation from figures published in the "Woman's Journal," +edited by Henry B. Blackwell and his daughter Alice Stone Blackwell, I +quote her results: In Maine there are but 12 Suffragists to every 100,000 +of the people; in New Hampshire, but 5 to every 100,000; in Massachusetts, +but 51 to every 100,000; in Connecticut, but 23 to every 100,000. +Pennsylvania has but 14 in 100,000; Kentucky has 32 to 100,000; Michigan, +but 6 to 100,000; Illinois has 13 to 100,000; Ohio has 11 to 100,000; Iowa +has 6 to 100,000; Virginia, but 1 to 100,000; New Jersey, 8 to 100,000; +Arkansas, 3 to 100,000; South Carolina, 3 to 100,000. California has 33 in +every 100,000, and Maryland has 6 in 100,000. If the suffrage is claimed +for tax-paying women, it can be shown that there are, in New York State, +for instance, at least 1,500,000 women who do not pay taxes. But, as a +matter of fact, the tax-paying women of this State were among the first +signers of Anti-suffrage petitions. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +WOMAN SUFFRAGE AND THE HOME. + + +The tenth count in the Suffrage Declaration is: "He has usurped the +prerogative of Jehovah himself, claiming it as his right to assign for her +a sphere of action, when that belongs to her conscience and to her God." + +In the "History of Woman Suffrage," the editors say: "Quite as many false +ideas prevail as to woman's true position in the home as elsewhere. +Womanhood is the great fact of her life; wifehood and motherhood are but +incidental relations." + +The first legislation demanded by the Suffragists was that which called +for a change of the marriage laws, so as to admit of divorce, first for +drunkenness, and later for several other causes. In discussing the matter +in convention, Mrs. Stanton presented resolutions that declared, among +other things, "That any constitution, compact, or covenant between human +beings that failed to produce or promote human happiness, could not, in +the nature of things, be of any force or authority; and it would be not +only a right, but a duty, to abolish it. That though marriage be in itself +divinely founded, and is fortified as an institution by innumerable +analogies in the whole kingdom of universal nature, still a true marriage +is only known by its results; and like the fountain, if pure, will reveal +only pure manifestations. That observation and experience daily show how +incompetent are men, as individuals, or as governments, to select partners +in business, teachers for their children, ministers of their religion, or +makers, adjudicators or administrators of their laws; and as the same +weakness and blindness must attend in the selection of matrimonial +partners, the dictates of humanity and common-sense alike show that the +latter and most important contract should no more be perpetual than either +or all of the former." + +In supporting these resolutions, Mrs. Stanton said, "I place man above all +governments, ecclesiastical and civil--all constitutions and laws." "In +the settlement of any question, we must simply consider the highest good +of the individual." Antoinette Brown Blackwell followed Mrs. Stanton with +a series of resolutions in which she opposed her, and defended the +sanctity of marriage. Wendell Phillips moved that neither series of +resolutions be entered on the journal. Mr. Garrison said they did not come +together to settle the question of marriage, but he should be sorry to +rule out Mrs. Stanton's resolutions and speeches. Miss Anthony said: "I +hope Mr. Phillips will withdraw his motion.... I totally dissent from the +idea that this question does not belong on this platform. Marriage has +ever been a one-sided matter. By it, man gains all, woman loses all. +Tyrant law and lust reign supreme with him; meek submission and ready +obedience alone befit her.... By law, public sentiment, and religion, from +the time of Moses down to the present day, woman has never been thought of +other than as a piece of property, to be disposed of at the will and +pleasure of man.... She must accept marriage as man proffers it, or not at +all." + +The resolutions were carried and recorded, and are published to this day, +with added testimony to the same effect from a hundred Suffrage sources. +We turn back to trace one of the lines through which this teaching has +come down. The Suffrage leaders mention as special inspirers of their +movement besides Ernestine Rose (who seconded Mrs. Stanton's resolutions) +and Frances Wright, Margaret Fuller and Mary Wollstonecraft. In the +writings of those women we find the same sentiments set forth with +delicacy or vulgarity, according to the nature of the writer. Margaret +Fuller, in her Dial essay, published in 1843, "The Great Lawsuit--Man +Versus Woman, Woman Versus Man," says: "It is the fault of marriage, and +of the present relation between the sexes, that the woman belongs to the +man, instead of forming a whole with him. It is a vulgar error to suppose +that love--a love--is to woman her whole existence. She is also born for +Truth and Love in their universal energy. Would she but assume her +inheritance, Mary would not be the only virgin mother." Mary +Wollstonecraft believed that marriage consisted solely of mutual +affection, and that there should be no outward promise or tie to bind. If +love were to die, the heart should seek other affinity. The licentious +words of Frances Wright need not be repeated. With Mephistophelian +promptings, Ernestine Rose stood forever a-tip-toe, whispering in the ear +of the purer American feeling that would often have faltered. At the time +of the passing of Mrs. Stanton's resolutions she said: "But what is +marriage? A human institution, called out by the needs of the social, +affectional human nature for human purposes.... If it is demonstrated that +the real objects are frustrated, I ask, in the name of individual +happiness and social morality and well-being, why should such a marriage +be binding for life?... I ask that personal cruelty to the wife may be +made a State's-prison offence, for which divorce shall be granted. Wilful +desertion for one year should be a sufficient cause for divorce.... +Habitual intemperance, or any other vice which makes the husband or wife +intolerable and abhorrent to the other, ought to be sufficient cause for +divorce." Essentially the same idea was repeated by Dr. Hulda Gunn in a +recent Suffrage meeting. + +In asking for laws that carried out these claims, or some of them, Mrs. +Stanton said, in addressing the New York Legislature in 1854: "If you take +the highest view of marriage as a Divine relation, which love alone can +constitute and sanctify, then of course human legislation can only +recognize it.... But if you regard marriage as a civil contract, then let +it be subject to the same laws that control all other contracts. Do not +make it a kind of half-human, half-divine institution, which you may build +up but cannot regulate." + +These doctrines--from those of Frances Wright to those of Mrs. Stanton and +Miss Anthony--were put forth in the name of social purity and true +marriage. A great body of Suffragists never have accepted them. They were +repugnant, in this form, to a majority who were demanding "equal rights." +In January, 1871, Mr. Hooker (husband of Isabella Beecher Hooker), said in +the New York Evening Post: "The persons who advocate easy divorce would +advocate it just as strongly if there was no Suffrage movement. The two +have no necessary connection. Indeed, one of the strongest arguments in +favor of Woman Suffrage is, that the marriage relation will be safer with +women to vote and legislate upon it than where the voting and legislation +are left wholly to men. Women will always be wives and mothers, above all +things else. This law of nature cannot be changed, and I know of nobody +who desires to change it." As he had just been referring to "persons who +advocated easy divorce," and who originated the Suffrage movement, his +statement that he knew of nobody who desired to change marriage seems +funny. + +It was one of the matters remarked upon with satisfaction by Suffrage +leaders during our Constitutional Convention Suffrage campaign, that such +a large number of speakers advocated Suffrage because of its advantage to +the home. Mrs. Cora Seabury said: "Where woman is, homes naturally exist, +and not without her. The 'divine veracity in nature,' which in her case +has survived the chaos of ages and the varying civilization of six +thousand years, is not now to be disproved by an incident comparatively so +trivial as that of taking the ballot." Dr. Jacobi puts the idea in this +way: "Mr. Goldwin Smith declares that woman suffrage aims at such a +'sexual revolution' as must cause the 'dissolution of the family.' The +Suffrage claim does not aim at this; it seeks only to formulate, +recognize, and define the revolution already effected, yet which leaves +the family intact. The _Patria Potestas_ is gone. A man has lost, first, +the right to kill his own son, then the right to order the marriage of his +daughter, then the right to absorb the property of his wife. Nevertheless, +he survives, and the family, shorn of its portentous rights, bids fair in +America to remain the happiest of all conceivable natural institutions; +more profound than society, so immeasurably deeper than politics that the +fortunate wife, daughter, or sister is puzzled when the two are mentioned +in the same breath." + +All these writers agree in demanding the ballot in order to make some +essential change in woman's condition. Some of them hold that this change +cannot be made unless the relations of wife and mother can be set aside +when the individual considers them detrimental; others hold that it can be +made and leave the relations intact; and one believes that this change is +already so far made, while the relations are still intact, that nothing +need be feared from further change. It reduces itself to matter of opinion +and prophecy on the part of those who agree with the early leaders that +essential change is needed, but do not agree with them as to the steps +necessary. The appeal must be to facts. + +The originators of the movement ought to know what the movement meant. The +marriage laws were the first attacked, and are still being hammered at in +favor of divorce, although legislation has outrun their demand in changing +the outgrown laws in regard to property and contracts. Mr. Hooker said: +"The persons who advocate easy divorce would advocate it just as strongly +if there was no Suffrage movement." How can that be, when the women who +inspired the Suffrage movement, and who began it and still carry it on, +proclaimed this as a necessary part? But, this question aside, it may be +said that the marriage relation has been the most unsafe in the hands of +the women whose idea of equality either repudiates it outright or inveighs +against its present status. From the revolutionary and infidel portion of +France, from which it sprang, to the recently dead Oneida Community, who +but women who imbibed the doctrine that marriage was bondage, have +sustained the various forms of license which called itself freedom? +Transcendentalism and Libertinism worked together, and both found women +who could be fitted to the task of destroying the home. + +Mrs. Seabury avers that where woman is, homes will naturally exist. Homes +have not existed "naturally." There was a long, long time in human history +when not a dream of a home existed. From lawless individualism to tribal +life, from tribe to clan, from the clan, at last, through mighty +struggles, the family was evolved--the final grouping of the race--the +social unit. That point was not reached until man the savage, man the +rover, had consented to be bound, and bound for life, to one woman. It has +been one object of Christian civilization to hold man to this saving +compact. First to hold his spirit by affection for wife and child, and +next to hold his material interests for the sake of society. The work has +so well progressed that to-day the man's family is dearer to him than his +own life. He will live for them, and fight for them; and the women who +proclaim that man is woman's enemy, are the assassins of their own peace +and of the growing peace of home. + +A proof that "women will not always be wives and mothers above all things +else," is to be found in the story of the women who have engaged in +intrigue from the days of ancient Egypt. A woman State senator-elect says: +"I am a Mormon, and believe in polygamy." The organizations that are first +to proclaim the so-called freedom of woman from the marriage bond, are the +same that would repudiate all government, human and divine. + +But man has no more set the bounds of woman's life than woman has set +those of man's. It is false to say that man has "usurped the prerogative +of Jehovah," in assigning her a sphere of action. He has assigned neither +her sphere nor his own. Their spheres have been worked out from the +conditions that made them male and female. The ideal that faith could +picture was presented in the Old Testament, and when Christ said, "For the +hardness of your hearts Moses commanded to write a bill of divorcement, +but in the beginning it was not so," he spoke the ultimate word. Save for +adultery, the family was not to be broken, and the laws of modern life, +which grow freer in every other respect, are approaching nearer to this +model as society progresses, and most rapidly so in the most progressive +states. + +There is a fine bit of unconscious humor in Miss Anthony's remark that +"Woman must accept marriage as man proffers it, or not at all." Man is at +present blinded by the belief that he must proffer marriage as woman will +accept it, or not at all. Society has lodged with her what Mrs. Stanton +calls "only the veto power." Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton apparently wish +the women to do the proffering, the accepting, and the rejecting. With so +insignificant a part assigned him, it would seem a pity that there should +be a sort of necessity for man to play in the marriage role at all. When +Suffrage leaders have so arranged matters that the bride retains her +maiden name, she can spend her summers in Europe and her winters in +Florida, while her husband works all the year round in New York to support +her, without her being subjected to the mortification of seeming to desert +the man whose name she bears. + +You cannot teach this untruth to the girl without teaching it to the boy. +The struggle of civilization has been to teach that manhood was not the +great fact of man's life, and he has learned it through the chivalry and +tenderness that appealed to and developed his higher nature. But if once +he understands that woman does not hold herself in need of his chivalry +and tenderness, the husbandhood and fatherhood that now bind him to one +sacred vow of married love, and tame the savage within him, will not long +prevent him from seeing his own advantage in the new order. + +Wifehood and motherhood 'incidental relations.' They are incidental! +Incidental not only to the continuance of the race in civilization, but to +all that is best and holiest in that continuance. The mothers of the +Rebellion say: "The love of offspring, common to all orders of women and +all forms of animal life, tender and beautiful as it is, cannot as a +sentiment rank with conjugal love. The one calls out only the negative +virtues that belong to the apathetic classes, such as patience, endurance, +self-sacrifice, exhausting the brain forces, ever giving, asking nothing +in return; the other, the outgrowth of the two supreme powers in nature, +the positive and negative magnetism, the centrifugal and centripetal +forces, the masculine and feminine elements, possessing the divine power +of creation in the universe of thought and action. Two pure souls fused +into one by an impassioned love. This is marriage, and this is the only +corner-stone of an enduring home." + +The "homes" built solely upon this cornerstone have not endured in this +country. The children born under such principles are taken care of by the +"Community" in a building apart from that occupied by the "pure souls." +The "institutional" bringing up of children was lately advocated in this +city by Mrs. Stanton Blatch at Suffrage meetings. + +The virtues that the Suffrage leaders denounce as "apathetic" are those +that Christ signalized as the heavenly virtues, and are those which heroes +emulate, whether they be women or men. + +Dr. Jacobi says the Suffrage movement, "aims only to regulate and define +the revolution already effected, and which leaves the family intact." I +think it has been proven from words and acts that it does aim at just such +a "sexual revolution" as threatens the family with dissolution. It aimed +to accomplish this by every means in its power, by an industrialism which +it desired should make woman independent of man, by divorce laws, and by +the use of the ballot. Who has shorn man of all his portentous rights? Man +himself, through the influence of woman. Is it likely, then, that he was +taking steps in the direction of the destruction of his own home? He was +endeavoring to build it on those sure foundations that make it what it is. +He can build if woman occupies, but he cannot both fight for the home and +against it. Circumstances, and not Suffrage cries, have forced or enticed +woman into the trades and professions. She has gone farther afield for her +work, partly because the Aegis of home is more broadly spread than it +formerly could be on account of the very strength of the marriage tie, +which makes honor, home, and woman more secure. So far as she has gone to +help the home, and because of love of it, such causes have not hurt the +family life, and will not. But when we come to Suffrage we have met a +different matter. The vote is not an affair of feeling or opinion, like +religious belief. The fact that the men of the family are the natural +defenders of law, and the women are not, is seen at close quarters in the +home, and in case of opposite votes and any serious resulting action, the +father and son must stand in the attitude of actual physical as well as +political antagonism to the mother and daughter. If it came to an issue, +man would have to decide whether he would defend his own opinion, +expressed in his ballot, or the opposite opinion expressed by his wife in +her ballot. And the mere suggestion of difference in family opinion, final +action upon which could only be taken by a resort to that in which the men +must always be superior, would not only endanger family life and peace, +but would develop a fatal inequality between the sexes. If the women of +the family vote with the men, they only double the vote and the expense, +without changing the result; if they vote against the men, they stand in +the ridiculous attitude of opposing them where they cannot do more than +pull hair, or inviting a revolution which they cannot stay. + +As to the possibility of this, there are a few striking and suggestive +facts at hand. The sound judgment and law-abiding element of this country +expressed itself in no uncertain tones at the late election. After the +defeat of Mr. Bryan, he was given a tremendous demonstration of approval +at Denver, in which the women played a conspicuous part. Mrs. Bradford +said: "The women tried to welcome you to the White House. When a few more +stars have been added to the Equal Suffrage banner, the women _will_ +welcome you to the White House." Mrs. Patterson, President of the Equal +Suffrage League, said in seconding the address of welcome: "Women of +Colorado, I present to you the first president of the twentieth century-- +William Jennings Bryan." An invalid of whom I know, travelled from +California to her home in Colorado in order to cast her vote for Bryan, +while her husband cast his for McKinley in California. Mrs. Cannon, of +Utah, was elected on the Free-Silver ticket, against her husband on the +Gold-Standard ticket. Mrs. Cronine, a Populist member of the legislature +of Colorado, is reported as saying: "It hurt my husband, a lifelong +Republican, to see me vote against his party and carry both our children +with me." Should there be political disturbance in Colorado and Utah, in +1900, here are three husbands on record who might be called upon by the +United States authorities to put down by force, perhaps to kill, those +whose lawlessness their wives had instigated and abetted. In one instance +the man's own sons may fight against him, impelled to do so by the lessons +taught by their mother. It requires no stretch of fancy to see the +possibility of civil war brought to the doors of every home, when women +vote. And the occasion that would bring it would not be the saving of the +Nation's life, but its overthrow; not freedom for an oppressed class, but +mingled bondage and license for a sex now free; not the preservation of +home, but its destruction. The Suffrage women who here among us are +talking so foolishly about arbitration and universal peace, seem to have +no conception that with their next breath they are endeavoring to +establish the conditions for the most horrible of conflicts--that of Sex. +So far from the "taking of the ballot" being "trivial," it is the most +serious and dangerous business in which a woman can engage. + +The home is not a natural institution unless it is maintained by natural +means, and woman suffrage and the home are incompatible. John Bright, in +reply to Mr. Theodore Stanton's question why he opposed suffrage, said, "I +cannot give you all the reasons for the view I take, but I act from the +belief that to introduce women into the strife of political life would be +a great evil to them, and that to our own sex no possible good could +arise. When women are not safe under the charge or care of fathers, +husbands, brothers, and sons, it is the fault of our non-civilization, and +not of our laws. As civilization founded on Christian principles advances, +women will gain all that is right for them to have, though they are not +seen contending in the strife of political parties. In my experience I +have observed evil results to many women who have entered hotly into +political conflict and discussion. I would save them from it." + +How true this is, and how wise are the fears expressed by Mr. Bright, we +realize afresh at every study of the exciting campaign of November, 1896. +The Woman's Journal, the Suffrage organ, published a letter from its +California correspondent descriptive of the work of their women in +watching the count on the Suffrage amendment. One woman who felt "terribly +blue" says that a man patted her on the shoulder and told her to keep up +her courage, and she says: "It broke me up, I can tell you, for I never +could stand sympathy. If people will let me alone, I can grit my teeth and +stand it, but when they say kind things to me I go to pieces. However, as +I was bound I would not show those men how badly I felt, and give them a +chance to say women were hysterical, I smiled weakly--very weakly, I'm +afraid--but still it was a smile and passed as such. Then I began to get +sick--ye gods! how sick! The excitement in the booth stopped, but there +was an excitement in my head that had not been there before! Everything +got black and began to go round. They could have counted us out a dozen +times, and I should never have known the difference." Again the +correspondent says: "Mrs. W. was so tired that she broke down." "Mrs. +Babcock waxed eloquent, and had the meeting in tears. Miss Shaw said she +wanted to speak of one who had been forgotten, because she came here +before any of the rest, and worked so hard that she had ruined her health, +and lay pale and white on her couch at home. She stood there, and the +tears rolled down her cheeks, and she didn't try to wipe them away. Every +one was crying. Mrs. Blinn said, 'I cannot speak. I feel too much to say +anything,' and then she broke down and cried. Mrs. McCann soon had +everybody crying about Miss Hay, and when Miss Hay got up she was crying +too. So we had a very weepy morning, you see." In describing the departure +of Miss Anthony and Rev. Anna Shaw for the East she says: "Oh, it was +awful! awful! The whole thing was like a funeral." + +With the steady improvement in machinery and in education, the wife and +mother can be more and more relieved of work. But the home depends as much +as ever upon her love, her skill, her care. She now has means, which +science has just taught the world, of learning how to provide, on proper +principles, for children, how to dress sensibly, cook wholesomely, make +the home sanitary. Nursing is a fine art now, and comforts can be placed +within the reach of every invalid, if the mother knows how to do it. If +home is to be hospitable, and a centre of social influence, all the +artistic and homely powers are demanded. If the family is to be well- +dressed, the mother must attend to it. If home is to be beautiful, the +mother and daughter must make it so. In these days, there is little need +of slaving; and there is a glimpse ahead of leisure for thought and self- +culture such as men would find it hard to make. The long and enforced +retirement of maternity may prove a time for most valuable improvement. In +our social life there is too little culture that is the result of +absorption by a quiet process of mental assimilation. The place where this +can be best achieved is in the home. The danger of our fascinating modern +life, with its endless calls and opportunities outside, lies in the strain +it puts upon systems that are far more delicately organized than man's. +Nature meant that women should have periods of quiet. Let us honor our own +natures, exalt our own opportunities, love and lead our own lives, and so +bless the world and the Republic through perfected homes. + +I have considered this question mainly from the view-point of the wife and +mother; but the home relations are vastly broader. In regard to their +whole scope, some of the Suffrage leaders have uttered this dictum: "The +isolated household is responsible for a large share of woman's ignorance +and degradation." If this declaration does not mean that the Suffrage +movement aims to tear down the individual home, it means nothing. The +world must judge which system is responsible for the larger share of +woman's ignorance and degradation. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +CONCLUSION. + + +In the opening of this volume I have given it as my opinion that the +movement to obtain the elective franchise for woman is not in harmony with +those through which woman and government have made progress. I have spoken +of the marvellous forward impulse that has marked the passage of the last +half-century, and have mentioned the growth of religious liberty, the +founding of foreign and home missions, the extinction of slavery, the +temperance movement, the settlement of the West, the opening of the +professions and trades to women, the progress of mechanical invention, the +sudden advance of science, the civil war, and the natural play of free +conditions, as among the causes of this impulse. I have pointed out the +fact that the Suffrage movement has nearly reached its semi-centennial +year, and has made a record by which its relation to these progressive +forces can be judged, and I have appealed from the repetition of its +claims to the verdict of its accomplishment. + +In the second chapter I have considered the growth of republican forms the +world over, and endeavored to show that the dogma of Woman Suffrage is +fundamentally at war with true democratic principles, and that, +practically, woman suffrage has been allied with despotism, monarchy, and +ecclesiastical oppression on the one hand, and with the powers of license +and misrule that assail republican government on the other. + +In the third chapter I attempt to prove this further by a study of the +origin of the Suffrage movement, and by its relation to the Government of +the United States. I try to refute the two propositions which it has put +forth as solid resting-ground for woman's claim to the elective franchise +in this land--"Taxation without representation is tyranny," and "There is +no just government without the consent of the governed." I have also set +forth the difference between municipal and constitutional suffrage, and +shown that the extension of school suffrage, so far from being a stepping- +stone to full suffrage, affords another evidence that such full suffrage +is unprogressive and undemocratic. It is held that regulated, universal +manhood suffrage is the natural and only safe basis of government. + +In the fourth chapter I consider the early relation of the Suffrage +movement to the causes of anti-slavery and temperance. I also discuss the +attitude of the Suffrage leaders during the civil war, and indicate that +the Suffrage movement was not patriotic, and was a hindrance to +emancipation and reform. + +The fifth chapter treats of the connection of the Suffrage movement with +the change that has taken place in the laws, and it contains a synopsis of +the present laws of New York regarding women. From this study it appears +that the Suffrage movement did not originate the change in the laws; that +many changes most vigorously urged by its associations never have been +enacted; and that change of laws has not been so much sought as a voice +upon change of laws--the fact being, that the vote _per se_ has been urged +as the panacea for all woman's wrongs. + +The sixth chapter deals with Woman Suffrage and the trades. It shows that +this movement was not instrumental in opening the trades to women; that +the conditions of industrial life are not changed in such essentials as +would involve a change of sex relation to Government; and that, so far +from altering the basis of government, industrialism has introduced new +problems of such grave import that security in the enforcement of law is +doubly necessary. It shows, furthermore, that socialistic labor has been +naturally the friend of Woman Suffrage, while the safer and sounder +organizations have extended sympathetic help to woman. + +The seventh chapter discusses the connection of Woman Suffrage with the +professions. It aims to show that here, too, suffrage has not been +necessary to gain, for women who were fitted to hold it, an honorable +place; and, in regard to the places they have not yet entered, it is held +that the impulse must come from within. It is argued that, in the +professions, as in the trades, Suffrage effort has hindered more than it +has helped, and that in the West its practical working is the most +damaging thing that has attended woman's real progress. + +The eighth chapter considers the connection of Woman Suffrage with +education. Its conclusions are, that not education, but coeducation, was +the persistent demand of Suffragists, and that woman's advancement in +college and university was wrought out by the impulse gained from women +who opposed the Suffrage idea, and made practical by men to whom also that +idea was repugnant. It is suggested that women who could prepare and +defend the ignorant Suffrage Woman's Bible have no right to utter a +syllable in protest of the educational ideas of men and women who are +competent to speak on the subject, and whose verdict has been, on the +whole, for separate study during collegiate age, wherever such could be +afforded, while it is not disputed that coeducation has its place and its +uses. + +The ninth chapter presents Woman Suffrage in its relation to the church. +It first discusses, briefly, a few points in the Suffrage Woman's Bible, +published in New York in 1895. This is a commentary on such passages in +the Pentateuch as relate to women, and the title "Rev." is prefixed to +four names of editors on its title-page. This book, or rather a book of +which this is the first instalment, was promised by Suffrage writers and +speakers from the beginning. It is considered to contain the consummate +blossom of the mind that first expounded the Suffrage theory--the mind +that grasped it as a whole, in its full meaning and intent, and never has +wavered in expression as to its ultimate object and the means by which +that object is to be sought. This chapter sets forth, in few words, the +present writer's view of woman in the creation, and of St. Paul's attitude +toward woman. The chapter further discusses woman's early preaching in +this country, and shows that it has not been such as to build up religion +or the state, but has been such as to suggest that, while the +possibilities of her nature tend to make her supreme in capacity to point +the way to higher regions, it also contains qualities that may render her +peculiarly dangerous as a public leader. + +The tenth chapter, entitled "Woman Suffrage and Sex," alludes briefly to +the social evil, and then discusses the Suffrage ideas in regard to sex as +explained by both their older and more recent writers. It discusses the +disabilities of sex in relation to the suffrage--the difficulties in the +way of jury duty, police duty, and office-holding--and draws the +conclusion that the fulfilment of such necessary work of the voting +citizen is practically an impossibility for woman, and has been found to +be so in the Western States. + +The eleventh chapter has for its title "Woman Suffrage and the Home." It +sets forth the belief that the Suffrage movement strikes a blow squarely +at the home and the marriage relation, and that the ballot is demanded by +its most representative leaders for the purpose of making woman +independent of the present social order. It argues that communism is the +natural ally of Suffrage, and that, as homes did not spring out of the +ground, they will not remain where men and women alter the mutual +relations out of which the institution of home has slowly grown. + +The general conclusion of the book is, that woman's relation to the +Republic is as important as man's. Woman deals with the beginnings of +life; man, with the product made from those beginnings; and this fact +marks the difference in their spheres, and reveals woman's immense +advantage in moral opportunity. It also suggests the incalculable loss in +case her work is not done or ill done. In a ruder age the evident value of +power that could deal with developed force was most appreciated; but such +is not now the case. It lies with us to prove that education, instead of +causing us to attempt work that belongs even less to the cultivated woman +than to the ignorant, is fitting us to train up statesmen who will be the +first to do us honor. The American Republic depends finally for its +existence and its greatness upon the virtue and ability of American +womanhood. If our ideals are mistaken or unworthy, then there will be +ultimately no republic for men to govern or defend. When women are +Buddhists, the men build up an empire of India. When women are +Mohammedans, the men construct an Empire of Turkey. When women are +Christians, men can conceive and bring into being a Republic like the +United States. Woman is to implant the faith, man is to cause the Nation's +faith to show itself in works. More and more these duties overlap, but +they cannot become interchangeable while sex continues to divide the race +into the two halves of what should become a perfect whole. Woman Suffrage +aims to sweep away this natural distinction, and make humanity a mass of +individuals with an indiscriminate sphere. The attack is now bold and now +subtle, now malicious and now mistaken; but it is at all times an attack. +The greatest danger with which this land is threatened comes from the +ignorant and persistent zeal of some of its women. They abuse the freedom +under which they live, and to gain an impossible power would fain destroy +the Government that alone can protect them. The majority of women have no +sympathy with this movement; and in their enlightenment, and in the +consistent wisdom of our men, lies our hope of defeating this unpatriotic, +unintelligent, and unjustifiable assault upon the integrity of the +American Republic. + +NEW YORK, _March, 1897_. + +THE END. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Woman and the Republic, by Helen Kendrick Johnson + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMAN AND THE REPUBLIC *** + +This file should be named 7300-8.txt or 7300-8.zip + +Produced by Olaf Voss, Tiffany Vergon, Charles Aldarondo, +Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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